


Vaulted

by Staubengel



Category: Borderlands (Video Games)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Banter, F/M, M/M, Rescue Fic, Vault Hunter Rhys (Borderlands), vault hunter bromance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-22
Updated: 2021-02-02
Packaged: 2021-03-15 11:21:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 42
Words: 44,465
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28812588
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Staubengel/pseuds/Staubengel
Summary: Jack has vanished without any trace. One night, Rhys starts to get weird visions of him when he sleeps, asking Rhys to help him out. When Rhys finally does as he is told, he gets thrown into a wild adventure containing Vault Hunters, roadtrips, and the various joys that a journey to Pandora has to offer.The events of BL2 have not taken place here.BL3 does not even exist in my universe.
Relationships: Axton & Gaige (Borderlands), Axton/Maya (Borderlands), Gaige & Aurelia Hammerlock (Borderlands), Handsome Jack/Rhys (Borderlands), Maya & Aurelia Hammerlock (Borderlands), Maya & Gaige (Borderlands), Maya & Rhys (Borderlands), Maya & Zer0 (Borderlands), Rhys & Aurelia Hammerlock (Borderlands), Rhys & Gaige (Borderlands), Rhys & Vaughn (Borderlands), Rhys & Zer0 (Borderlands), Timothy Lawrence & Rhys, Zer0 & Aurelia Hammerlock (Boderlands), Zer0 & Gaige (Borderlands)
Comments: 9
Kudos: 23





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, I'm still alive!  
> Yes, I am still writing!
> 
> This is the first multi-chaptered Rhack-fic I am posting on AO3, and I am very excited about it!  
> Thank you so much to my friend Cosmo_is_Beink_Melon who got me into this ship and the games, who was the first to read this story, and who helped me out so much by giving me feedback, comments, ideas, and motivation. If you like Rhack, please check out her fics too, they're absolutely AMAZING!  
> Also thank you to my other friend Bluethenstaub, who left me awesome comments as well while I was working on this.
> 
> I am not a native speaker and this fic is not beta-read, so I apologise for any mistakes.
> 
> Feedback and constructive criticism are always appreciated!  
> Rude comments can be left in the trash.

It's approximately half past three in the morning when Rhys has his first far too real feeling nightmare about Jack.

When he jerks awake, he's so disturbed that he needs a moment to figure out if he is still sleeping or not. He isn't. But the image of Jack, his voice speaking in his head, is still edged into his mind, lingering there.

_Hey, Kiddo._

Rhys can hear the words over and over again, echoing from one side of his skull to the other.

He can see Jack's face, still.

The problem is that this didn't feel like a dream.

Rhys has had dreams with people in it, even some with Handsome Jack, and he knows what it's like to wake up from those. They might feel intense, real, even, but you always know you were dreaming when you wake up. This dream was nothing like that, and Rhys is honestly frightened.

He swings his long legs out of bed and sits on the edge for a moment, trying to shake the agitated feeling. Then he gets up and pads into the kitchen to grab the orange juice and take a big gulp of it.

“Can't sleep?” somebody asks behind him.

Rhys screams like a girl and whips around, pointing a threatening canister of orange juice into the dark corner of the kitchen that the voice came from. Some of it sloshes out of the opening and onto Rhys' foot.

“Whoa, bro!” Vaughn says and holds up his hands appeasingly. “It's just me, buddy! Don't soak me, I just heard you in here!”

“Vaughn!” Rhys scolds as he angrily lowers the juice canister. “Don't scare me like that, bro! My foot is wet now, thanks a lot!”

“Sounded like you almost wet your pants, too,” Vaughn states and walks over to the panel to switch on the light. “You okay, bro? Drinking juice in the middle of the night usually means that something's up with you. Had a bad dream?”

“Yeah, you could call it that,” Rhys mumbles. He puts the canister back into the fridge and throws a dishcloth on the floor to mop up the puddle of juice with his foot.

Vaughn watches him critically. “You wanna talk about it?” he asks, like the great friend that he is.

“Uh,” Rhys makes. “Just... I don't know, dream just felt very real, you know? Needed to come back to reality before going back to sleep, that's all.”

Vaughn frowns slightly, but he nods. Rhys knows he can tell Vaughn everything, but it's hard to explain the intensity of this dream to someone who hasn't been there. Vaughn would probably put it off as just nerves. And who knows, maybe he'd be right with it.

The truth is, ever since Jack vanished, all of Hyperion has been on the edge. Nobody knows where Jack is or what happened – he just never reported back from Pandora, and nobody was able to find him ever since.

This has happened over a week ago by now. Rhys would be lying if he said he's not affected by the entire situation on Helios.

“You wanna stay up and talk for a while?” Vaughn asks. “Play some video games? Watch a series?”

“Thanks, bro,” Rhys says with a little smile. “Think I would actually feel better napping with you on the sofa after a round of _Knock'os_ than going back to bed right now. Has been a while since we did that, huh?”

“I think after my last triumphant win, you refused to play that with me, yeah,” Vaughn states, giving Rhys a lopsided grin.

“Hah, you wish!” Rhys counters, kicking up the dishcloth with his foot to catch it and drop it into the sink. “I'll get the popcorn ready, you start the game, bro. Then we'll see who has a triumphant win, you loudmouth.”

Vaughn grins wider, obviously happy he could distract Rhys from his mood. “Oh, we will, bro,” he sing-songs as he leaves the kitchen. “Don't take too long or I'll be all warmed up when you join me.”

“That's cheating!” Rhys calls after him.

“And what are you gonna do about it?” Vaughn calls back, already out in the hallway.

Rhys smiles as he fishes the popcorn out of the cupboard and places it in the microwave. Leave it to Vaughn to bring him back into reality every time. No nightmare could ever be able to outdo his best friends' attempts of cheering him up again.


	2. Chapter 2

It's the same dream. It's the same goddamn dream, every time Rhys falls asleep now.

Jack is being there, in his dream, in his head, and he speaks to him. And it's always the same words.

_Hey, Pumpkin. I need your help._

It was there when Rhys fell asleep on the sofa, Vaughn lying on the other end, after a really good match of _Knock'os._ It was there when Rhys fell asleep the night after, afraid to close his eyes but hoping somehow that the dream he had on the sofa was just an echo of the dream he had before.

It was not.

Rhys jerks awake and he falls back asleep and he dreams again and he wakes back up.

_I need your help, Kiddo._

It's always there. Whenever Rhys falls asleep, Jack is waiting. And every time he's there, he tells Rhys that he needs his help.

Rhys manages two more nights of this after the dream first occurred, then he realises that he can't go on like that.

“Vaughn, I have visions of Jack when I sleep,” he says the morning he's so tired that he tried to comb his hair with his toothbrush. “I need to get rid of him, or I'll go insane.”

Vaughn stares at him from the side as if Rhys already _is_ insane. Rhys has to admit that he's probably right. This can't be normal. Maybe Rhys should go and see a doctor.

“What visions?” Vaughn asks tentatively. “Like... are you dreaming of him, are you seeing pictures, or –”

“No, he's talking to me,” Rhys says. His hand is shaking around his mug of coffee. Not even in college, right before the finals, did he get as little sleep as he gets now. “It's always the same. He always tells me to help him. Every time I fall asleep.”

Vaughn frowns. “That... sounds... horrifying?” he tries. “It's strange to have the exact same dream over and over again, isn't it?”

“It's not a dream,” Rhys insists. “I know what dreams are like. This isn't one, Vaughn. This is something else.”

“Okay,” Vaughn says, still cautious. “What exactly is it like?”

“I fall asleep,” Rhys says. “He shows up. He looks... like a hologram or something. All blue, no colours. Flickering. Glitching. And he always says that he needs my help. Then I jerk awake and he's gone again.”

Vaughn's eyes narrow behind his glasses. “That definitely doesn't sound like a dream,” he confirms. “But, I mean... exactly _what_ is this, then?”

“I don't know,” Rhys says. “But it's scary, Vaughn. Fucks me up every time.”

Vaughn nods slightly. “What do you think we should do about it?” he asks. “I mean, do you want to tell anybody? Get yourself checked up?”

“They'd probably think I'm insane,” Rhys mumbles. “Hell, _I_ think I'm insane, Vaughn. What do I tell the doctor? 'I think a projection of Handsome Jack is talking to me when I sleep'?”1

“I dunno,” Vaughn admits. “Maybe they could give you some sleeping pills, so you can get some rest? Cause, bro, you really look like you –”

“That's it,” Rhys says excitedly. “Vaughn, that's a great idea! If I knock myself out hard enough, maybe I can escape those... thingies!”

Vaughn looks at Rhys sceptically, even though it was his own suggestion. “Sure, bro,” he says. “Guess we can try it. You want me to get you some? Judie always has some _Somnax_ if you ask her right.”

“Please,” Rhys replies. “If I go one more night without sleep, Vaughn, I swear to you that I will airlock myself.”

“You know,” Vaughn says as he gets up, “with all the posters of Jack hanging in your office, I actually thought you'd be happier to dream of him every night.”

Rhys glare-pouts at him. “Not funny, bro,” he grumbles, but he blushes a bit. _Everybody_ on Helios likes Handsome Jack, alright? This is just... a very weird and scary situation.

Somehow, with this new hope to get him through the day, Rhys pulls himself up from the chair and wobbles out of the kitchen to go to work. It isn't until they meet in their lunch break that Vaughn tells him he's wearing his shirt inside-out. If he hadn't brought him _Somnax_ , Rhys would revalue Vaughn's status as a good friend.


	3. Chapter 3

Rhys isn't usually one to take drugs. Caffeine, sure, caffeine is everything. But sleeping pills? Not normally a part of his arsenal. Still, he doesn't hesitate too long with the pill inside of his palm, just shoves it into his mouth and washes it down with a gulp of water.

Vaughn insisted that they sleep in the same room, just in case, so they pulled out the sleeping couch and made themselves comfortable with their favourite blankies in front of the TV.

“Is it already working?” Vaughn asks from beside Rhys, worried eyes on his best friend.

“Well, I'm not sleeping yet,” Rhys replies, a tad sarcastically, and snuggles down into his pillow.

“Yeah, but do you _feel_ sleepy?” Vaughn asks.

“Bro, I felt sleepy for three days now,” Rhys mutters.

And that's about it. He vaguely realises Vaughn is saying something to him after that, but he's already falling asleep right there and then.

And Jack is there like he's just been waiting for it.

_Hey, Kiddo_ , he says, like he always does. _I need your help._

Rhys is scared. He doesn't even know why this vision always scares him so much. But it's so strange. To fall asleep and have _Jack_ there, Handsome Jack, who just vanished, and now he's here, and he talks to Rhys, and it feels so real. So real that his brain always jerks away from it.

Only that now, this time, it can't. The pill keeps it locked here, tight in its grasp, and in all of his panic, Rhys can't run away from this.

_I'm kinda lost here,_ Jack goes on. _You need come find me, okay, Pumpkin?_

Rhys wants out. He wants away from this. This is too real, this is too scary. He shouldn't see or hear this, this is not right. But he can't wake up. And Jack continues.

_I've tried to reach Hyperion,_ he says. _But I can't get through. If you hear this, you need to help me, Cupcake. Sneak into my office. There's an override code for the security systems, it's M1803E1984H. M1803E1984H, you got that? Go into my office, activate the subroutine scanners of my personal drive there, and I should be able to –_

Rhys wakes up.

Finally, his fear was able to fight through the resistance of the _Somnax_ and Rhys jerks awake, sitting upright, panting heavily.

Fuck, this was too much.

Rhys needs a very long moment to control his shivering and get his breathing back into track.

Vaughn has fallen asleep beside him, even though it feels to Rhys like he was only asleep for a couple of minutes. Well, at least one of them can have a peaceful night...

Rhys sits there and just stares ahead of himself for a moment. Now, he is even more scared than before. It's obvious that this is not a dream, but that Jack – or _something_ – is really in his head and takes over whenever Rhys' consciousness steps back. And not only that, he _wants_ something from Rhys. He actually _does_ need Rhys' help.

Rhys is unsure what to do now.

Maybe he really _is_ going insane? Maybe this isn't real at all. If so, maybe it all disappears again if he just ignores it. After all, it popped up just like that too, didn't it? If he grants his nerves some time to calm down, maybe he will stop having weird dreams at some point.

If it _is_ real, maybe he can _still_ just ignore it and hope it will go away at some point. Maybe Jack will give up eventually, or someone else will help him and Rhys has his peace.

Maybe this _isn't_ even Jack, but just a trick from someone who wants access to Jack's office. In that case, Rhys should definitely tell somebody.

But if it _is_ Handsome Jack, really asking Rhys for help...

Well, in that case, Rhys should tell somebody too, probably. It would be safer. If they fuck up, at least it won't be his fault.

But if he succeeds, if he helps to find out what happened to Jack...

Rhys closes his eyes and sinks back against the backrest of the sofa. He needs more sleep. He needs more sleep, or he will definitely go insane for good.

That something, if it's truly Jack, seems to communicate with him through his ECHO implants, right? If he shuts them down, maybe he'll be able to sleep again.

He can't really _shut down_ his implants; the only way to disable them is to take them out, and that's, well... painful. And he'd have to get them put back in if he wants to use them again, which is also painful.

But he _did_ accidentally knock them offline for a couple of hours with an EM pulse once, and while that gave him a horrible headache and was absolutely inconvenient for work, it would be the perfect thing to do right now. Rhys wonders why he didn't come up with this sooner.

When he fries his cybernetics in the kitchen he remembers why.

It's goddamn fucking _ouchie!_ His right arm immediately cramps and his left eye feels like fire. Not to mention the _intense_ headache that sets in right away. But Rhys doesn't even care. He just moans once, long and low, and then he slumps down on the floor right where he stands, and despite the pain alarms shrilling loud and hard all through his body, he falls asleep almost instantly.


	4. Chapter 4

_Help... Kiddo..._

Rhys comes to the moment Vaughn is leaning over him in worry.

“What –” Rhys stammers. “I'm awake!”

“Are you alright?” Vaughn asks. “You're lying on the kitchen floor, bro. Is everything okay with you?”

“Yeah...” Rhys says and gently runs the heel of his hand over his left eye. It still hurts like crazy and the pain leaps all the way through his brain to meet his spine. “I'm fine... Just knocked out my cybernetics so I could sleep for a while... What time is it?”

“Almost a quarter past four,” Vaughn answers.

That means Rhys has slept for about four hours. Plus the one-and-a-half hours he got out of the sleeping pill. Not much, but at least it's better than nothing. He still feels like skagshit, though.

Vaughn offers his hands and helps Rhys up from their kitchen floor.

“So?” he asks. “I guess the pill didn't help, then?”

“Not really,” Rhys mumbles and slumps down against the counter. “Only got me stuck longer in the dream. Vision. Whatever. Can I have a glass of water, please?”

“Sure,” Vaughn says and shuffles over to the sink to get one for Rhys. Rhys grabs it thankfully and takes a huge gulp from it. Some of it runs past his lips and wets the collar of his sleeping shirt.

“I need to go into Jack's office, Vaughn,” he says as he sets the glass down. “That's what Jack wants. He needs access to his subroutine scanners, and I have to activate them manually.”

He doesn't look at Vaughn, but he knows his best friend's expression anyway.

“Uh...” Vaughn utters. “Rhys, you can't just... waltz into Jack's office and _do_ stuff in there... That room is heavily protected.”

“He gave me an override code for the security system,” Rhys says.

He can tell that Vaughn is frowning even harder. “Rhys,” he says, in a gentle but earnest tone, “I don't think that's a good idea. We don't even know if that vision really is Jack. What if it _is_ a dream after all, and you're just imagining the code? Or what if Jakobs or Dahl or someone is sending out this signal, and this is all a trap? You could hurt yourself badly if you try to do this.”

“I know,” Rhys says. “I know all that, Vaughn. But this is the only way to get rid of these nightly visits. I can't take out my cybernetics every night to get some sleep. And also, what if it really _is_ Jack sending me a message? I can't just ignore this if it really is Jack.”

Vaughn looks desperate. Rhys still doesn't look at him, but he _knows_ it. And he knows that Vaughn knows that Rhys won't be talked down from this plan, no matter how absolutely brain-fried it might sound.

“What if they catch you?” Vaughn asks lowly.

“They won't,” Rhys says, and now, he finally looks up at his flatmate. “Not if my best friend is there to watch my back.”

Vaughn looks as miserable as Rhys expected. He's seen him like this too often; Vaughn is always the more careful one, the one trying to talk some sense into Rhys when Rhys is going off the rails. There's so much inside of him, but he's always afraid of letting it out.

“Vaughn,” Rhys says and places his hand on his best bro's shoulder. “Imagine it. Imagine if it's really Jack, and he needs our help, and we can _provide it_ to him. You and I. Saving Handsome Jack.”

Vaughn still looks miserable, but there's something else moving across his features now, too. “You mean... this could really help bring him back?” he asks. “Bring Handsome Jack back? And he'd know that we...”

“Well, I don't know, but could be,” Rhys says. “Think about it, Vaughn. I've been having this same vision for days in a row, it looks and sounds like Jack, he's given me a code to his office. We can at least go and try out if it works.”

“What if it doesn't?” Vaughn asks, still a bit sceptical.

Rhys shrugs. “Then nothing,” he says. “It was just a dream after all.”

“And if it _does_...” Vaughn says.

Rhys grins at him. “Exactly.”

“Well,” Vaughn says, now smiling slightly as well. “When do we start, then?”


	5. Chapter 5

It's the middle of the night when Vaughn and Rhys scurry through the Hub of Heroism. Helios never sleeps; _some_ body is always awake, doing extra hours, trying to impress their superiors, trying to outdo their co-workers. It hasn't gotten better since Jack vanished. Still, it's always less busy during night hours than it is during the daytime here.

The elevator to Jack's office is not guarded. It doesn't need to be, because nobody who is not authorised can access it. Still, Rhys' gut is in knots as they come closer, and he looks around out of the corners of his eyes nervously.

“Okay,” he whispers. “Let's go through this one more time. What's our plan?”

“You go to the elevator with the flowers,” Vaughn whispers back. He looks just as nervous as Rhys feels, even walks a little hunched as if somebody could jump on them. “I'll keep my distance and look around to see if someone approaches you and will warn you if I spot somebody.”

Rhys nods slightly. “Sounds good,” he says, but even to himself, he doesn't sound convinced. “It will be a quick in-and-out-job. If the code works, I'll go up to Jack's office and do the thing. If it doesn't work, we'll just pretend this never happened and leave again.”

“Yeah,” Vaughn says. “Hoping they won't come after us.”

“If they do, we have the explanation,” Rhys says and clutches the flowers in his hands tighter. It's stupid, really; if anybody asks why he tried to get up to Jack's office, he'll say he wanted to leave them in front of the doors as a tribute to his hero. They're bright yellow with a black core. Rhys doesn't know if Jack likes flowers, but if he does, Rhys imagines he'd like ones that look like these.

Vaughn nods vaguely. “Just hoping this will work...” he mumbles.

They stop at the stairs that lead down to the space in front of the elevator. Nobody is here right now. They are alone.

Rhys takes a deep breath and closes his eyes for a moment.

This is insane. _He_ is insane. For being here, for really doing this, for dragging Vaughn into it as well. They should turn around, he should just get over it and ignore these stupid visions.

But he knows that he can't, and despite his nerves and his fear and the insanity of it all, Rhys is also excited, because _what if it works._ It has to work. If it doesn't... Rhys doesn't even want to think about that.

“Good luck,” Vaughn whispers beside him and Rhys nods slightly.

“First step to being incredibly famous one day,” he says and opens his eyes again. He sure hopes that he's right. If not... Again, he better not think about that.

He takes a last look around, a final deep breath, and then Rhys hurries down the stairs to the elevator. There's a panel right next to it that, normally, he would swipe his access card across to make the elevator doors open. But all he has to enter the elevator is a code he got from Jack in a vision, and the hope that typing it in will work.

Rhys stands in front of the panel as close as possible in case anyone is watching his fingers too closely.

“Alright, code, show me what you got,” he mumbles as he presses the keys in the right order. M1803E1984H...

He hesitates for just a moment before he presses the ENTER button.   
“Pleaseletthisberightpleaseletthisberightpleeeeeeeeeaseletthisber–”

“Security Systems Override,” Hyperion says.

Rhys' heart jumps and freezes at the same time and he flails slightly. “Sssssh!” he hisses. “Not so loud, you're gonna make somebody notice!”

The doors of the elevator slide open. Rhys hurries inside before they can change their mind.

As the glass doors close again, Rhys turns around to look at Vaughn, who beams at him and gives him a thumbs-up. Rhys grins back and thumbs-up too. Then the elevator sets in motion and carries him up towards Jack's office.

“Okay, this worked,” Rhys states to himself with a sigh and slumps against the wall of the elevator. “Now I just gotta make it into Jack's office, activate the subroutine scanners, aaaaaaand not get caught doing all of that. Piece of cake!”

It isn't, of course.

When the doors of the elevator open, Rhys peeks outside to see where he landed. He's never been up to Jack's office before. Nobody ever goes up to Jack's office. This is a dream coming true for Rhys, or rather, a fantasy, and even in his current nervousness can he feel the excitement of being in this sanctuary.

He activates his ECHO eye to record all this for Vaughn.

There's a corridor running up to a set of stairs, leading to yet another corridor with a door at the end of it that Rhys assumes must be the entrance to Jack's office. Rhys carefully sets in motion, stepping out of the elevator and making his way towards the stairs.

A giant holo-emitter with a spinning model of the Helios space station is set right into the middle of the corridor, which means Rhys has to navigate around it. On each side of the emitter, stairs are leading down to small, open rooms. Both of the rooms are set up with giant paintings of Jack opening the Vault and defeating the Vault Monster inside. They have a horrible style that looks nothing like Jack, and Rhys frowns in distaste. “Could have at least gotten a good painter for this,” he mumbles to himself as he continues his way down the first corridor.

As he walks up the stairs, he can see that there are desks set up to each wall of the higher corridor. Probably for Jack's assistants and secretaries and such. Luckily, no one is here right now, which, Rhys assumes, only makes sense. Jack is not present, after all. There's no one there to give these people orders.

The higher corridor is quite long. Hyperion posters decorate the walls between the windows, and a picture of Jack himself is crowning the big double doors at the end of the hallway. Rhys has the exact same poster hanging inside of his office. He looks for a moment before he turns off his ECHO eye and swallows nervously.

“Okay,” he says and closes his eyes for a deep breath. “Okay, Rhys, this is it. Just one more time, you can do this, come on, bro. It's the same code, just... type it in there. Here we go.”

There's another panel next to the office doors. Rhys turns to it and types in the code again. Jack only gave him this one, so Rhys assumes it's meant for both the elevator and Jack's actual office doors.

M1803E1984H... ENTER.

Now he'll see what he'll get from all of this...

“Security Systems Override,” Hyperion says again and Rhys cheers loudly.

This is _so_ goddamn exciting! He is here, in front of Handsome Jack's office, following the instructions of Handsome Jack himself, to help him get back to Helios! Never in his wildest dreams would Rhys _ever_ have dared to imagine something like this could become reality. And yet, here the doors to Jack's office slide open, and Rhys can actually have a look inside the room.

It's gigantic, of course. Two sets of stairs lead up to a big desk standing before a huge window front, with a yellow throne for an office chair. Through the windows, you can actually see the cracked surface of Elpis like a giant mural decorating the room. Massive busts of Jack line the way to the first flight of stairs, Hyperion posters are plastering the walls. It's an absolutely impressive sight, and Rhys marvels for a moment with huge eyes before he thinks of activating his ECHO eye again to take a snapshot he can later show to Vaughn.

Still looking around in fascination, Rhys finally steps into the office and slowly walks towards the first set of stairs. The Jack busts are towering above him, everything is tinted in cool, blue light. One set of stairs, then the other. The desk almost looks small inside the giant office, even though it's actually gigantic. Rhys runs his fingertips of the smooth surface as he passes it and then, he's reached the big, yellow office chair that Jack usually sits in. For whatever reason, he doesn't dare to sit down inside of it.

“Alright,” he breathes out. “Here we go, Rhys. Let's do this. Final step of the ladder.”

He carefully places the flowers on the desktop and then tentatively reaches out to draw up a working screen. “Okay, subroutines... subroutines... Let's go over this program here, then we can... yep... and if we just hack down into these subsystems here, then we should actually be able to... There! Okay, now activate, and all we have to do iiiiis...”

“Warning,” Hyperion's calm voice says. “Unauthorised user detected. Locking office doors.”

“What?! No! Nonononono, I'm not unauthorised, I'm –”

“Shutting down computer access.”

“Oh, COME ON!”

Rhys frantically tries to save the computer, but he can already see an overwriting-program shutting down everything that he does on it. There's no way he can work faster than this, no matter how quickly he punches the keys. “Do! Not! Shut! Me! OUT!” he begs. “ _Please_! I need this access, I'm trying to _help Jack here_!”

But there's no use to it. The computer is shutting down rapidly, and there's absolutely nothing Rhys can do about it. Except maybe...

He takes his right hand off the keyboard and activates his RHY5-W1NZ.EXE program. This won't prevent the shut-down, but maybe he can delay it for a while. He has no idea what Jack needs the subroutine scanners to be active for, but Rhys better gives him as much time as possible to make good use of them.

His holo-emitter tells him that the link to the computer is being connected.

“Come oooon,” Rhys urges it on. “I have no time here! You gotta be quick, buddy! Hurry!”

The link connects. Rhys quickly sets both hands back to work and types, just _types_ , types types types, as fast as he can. His program helps to slow down Hyperion for just a tiny bit, but it's at least something.

And then, suddenly, someone else is hacking into the system.

Rhys can tell because the cursor jumps to the next line, and then there's a flow of code Rhys isn't typing, but that's there to ward off the shut-down. It's basically a quicker, shorter version of what Rhys was doing earlier, just broken down with shortcuts Rhys didn't know could be used in this way.

“Jack...” Rhys whispers.

He quickly jumps in and starts typing on his own again. It's complimentary code, not getting in Jack's way but supporting him, writing out the basic code that Jack can then link to with his brilliant shortcut method. Rhys' eyes fly over the screen, scanning what Jack is doing, predicting what line of code he might need to refer to next, and then he types it down quickly.

Hyperion is fighting heavily. Jack has probably written this program himself back in the day, and he is the best coder in all the Six Galaxies. It's battering them hard, rolling out line after line after line of code to shut Rhys and the new intruder out of the system. But Jack seems to know his own program well, and also be good enough to outsmart it.

At one point, the attacks of Hyperion stop.

Rhys is panting, his heart hammering inside of his chest, and he hangs his head in relief and sighs loudly. “Well, that was close,” he mumbles. “Guess I won't die locked up in this office now, or rot down in Hyperion prison.”

Only then does he realise what really just happened.

His head snaps back up and he stares at the screen, where there's still the aftermath of the battle visible; endless streams of code from both their side and Hyperion, with a blinking cursor at the end of it, awaiting its next command.

The last words written on the screen are not coding.

_Hey, Kiddo_ , they say, and Rhys' heart jumps. _Thanks for finally helping me out._


	6. Chapter 6

Rhys stares at the words again and again, and then he stares at them some more.

He can't believe that Handsome Jack has written them.

And maybe he hasn't, who knows. Maybe it's still all just a trap, and someone is hacking into the Hyperion security system right now. If that's the case, well, Rhys can just go and airlock himself right away to save everybody a whole lot of trouble.

But if Jack _has_ written them... If he's really talking to _Handsome Jack_ right now...

While Rhys is still torn between incredible excitement and incredible potential panic attacks, there are new words appearing on the screen in front of him.

_Can you turn up the interspacial recipient range? I need a better signal to get through to you._

Oh God, of course Rhys can. No, wait, what if it's a trap. The trap, Rhys. Don't forget about the – ah, screw it. If it really _is_ a trap, he's let the intruder in already, anyway.

He makes a few clicks and types a few lines into the screen. “Better range coming right up,” he mumbles as he does so, “in three, two, one...”

The final click. That was it. Now whoever is on the other side has the perfect range to do whatever they want to this computer.

Rhys is so excited that he can barely keep from bouncing on his feet.

For a long moment, there is absolutely nothing happening. Rhys' excitement almost tips over into disappointment, almost gives in to the panic, but _then_...

“Hey there, Cupcake,” Jack says. He's right there on the screen. A live video of him. In colour. And with sound.

Rhys stares so hard he can basically hear his eyes gasping for air.

“Jack...” he stammers. “This is... is this... really... real?”

“What, me?” Jack asks. “Yeah, guess so. Never been realer, Baby. Who are you?”

“Rhys,” Rhys says. “Rhys Strongfork. Middle Manager at Hyperion.”

“Course you work for Hyperion,” Jack says. “Knew it when I saw you coding, Kitten. Got a mean skill right there, and only the best coders work for Hyperion, right?”

He grins at Rhys.

Rhys, like a fourteen-year-old teenager meeting his biggest and most famous star, grins right back from ear to ear.

“Good to see this worked out,” Jack sighs. “You can’t imagine how friggin frustrating it is to be stuck here with nobody picking up my calls. Tried to message Hyperion a _bazillion_ times by now, but my signal didn’t make it through directly. Had to fiddle with the frequencies. Wasn’t sure I would even reach anybody.”

“My cybernetics picked up your signal,” Rhys says and taps his index finger against his temple port. His heart is still beating so hard that he can feel it pulsing inside of his throat. “But only, uh. Only sporadically.”

Jack frowns slightly and cocks his head, as if he knows exactly Rhys isn’t telling him everything. “Rhys, was it?” he asks, and Rhys nods, exhilarated by the sound of his name in Jack’s voice. “Thanks for saving my ass, Kiddo. Really owe you one when I get back. Which is my point 2.0: You gotta get me back to Helios. Need your help hiring some people for that. I’ll walk you through it, just do what I say. You ready?”

“Uh,” Rhys makes. “I'm not... H-hire people? What people? Where _are_ you even? What happened to you, Jack?”

“That's a good fuckin' question,” Jack admits. “And I'll answer it for you in just a minute, Pumpkin. But first, you gotta do what I tell you, okay? The sooner we get this done, the better.”

Rhys wants to argue, wants to ask Jack more, but he doesn't want Jack to get angry with him. A billion questions buzz in his head, but the only one that he asks is, “Okay, uh, who do you want me to hire for you?”

“Aurelia,” Jack says immediately. “Aurelia Hammerlock. Best lady in the business of killing people. Well, not only lady, probably best _person_ in the business of killing people, don't wanna be sexist here. She'll demand a whole fuckton of money, but don't worry about that, just pay her what she wants, I'm rich.”

“Aurelia... Hammerlock...” Rhys repeats as he writes down her name so he won't forget it. “Wait, doesn't she like, own an entire galaxy or something?”

“Only a planet,” Jack says, and he sounds the tiniest bit offended. “Or two by now, maybe, I don't know. Just hire her, she'll know how to do this.”

“Aaaalright,” Rhys mumbles and finishes writing. “That's, uh, one down. I assume you want a couple of more people on this.”

“Aren't you a smart one,” Jack says in mocking praise. “Yeah, get me a guy called Zer0. Or thing, maybe, I'm not really sure what he is. Could be a Vault Monster for all that I know. But he's friggin amazing, I always wanted to hire him for something.”

“Oookay,” Rhys says, sounding a little sceptical. “Aurelia Hammerlock and Zer0. Whoever or whatever that guy might be. Who's next?”

“A girl called Gaige,” Jack says. “Has a _huge_ fucking killer robot she built on her own with, like, 18 or something. Brilliantly insane. Wanted to hire her to work in Hyperion's Robotics Department, but she's an anarchy nerd, wouldn't commit to the corporate life. But this time, I'll get her.” He chuckles darkly. “Maaaan, that robot slices through people like they're butter, it's amazing, I've seen it. So fucking frustrating I can't witness her in action on this.”

Rhys, who is horrified by the idea of someone _slicing through people with a robot like butter_ , hurries to interrupt Jack's thought process.

“Right, uh!” he calls out. “Lady Hammerlock, Zer0, and Gaige! Anybody else you want to bring in on this?”

“Yeah, definitely,” Jack replies and seems to snap out of his murder imaginations. “We need a Siren on this, so you have to hire Maya.”

“A... Siren,” Rhys repeats, like Jack just asked him to get him a unicorn with a rainbow-coloured mane.

“That's what I just said, dumb-dumb,” Jack states. “Trust me, she's a friggin _badass_. We need her on the team, so no matter what she wants, give it to her.”

“Okay, yeah, sure, a Siren,” Rhys mumbles, putting down 'Maya' on his list of hires. “What could possibly go wrong trying to hire a _Siren_ for this.”

“Ah, not much,” Jack says dismissively. “As long as you don't tell them that you hire them for me. Don't tell them that, Sugarplum, okay? Aurelia is fine to know, but keep it from the others. Don't think they'd appreciate working for me.”

“Uh, alright, yeah, of course,” Rhys says. He doesn't say that he thinks it's a horrible idea to hire people who don't want to work for you. Cause this is Handsome Jack, and he definitely, _definitely_ , won't argue with him. “Just... how am I supposed to hire them without letting them know what for, exactly?”

A wolfish grin spreads over Jack's face and sends a shudder down Rhys' spine.

“That, Buttercup, is the easiest part of this whole fucking shitshow,” Jack says. “They're Vault Hunters, right? Well, you're gonna tell them all they will search for a Vault for you. Because yours truly? Is stuck inside of one. And bingo.”


	7. Chapter 7

Rhys just stares. He _stares_ , because he certainly heard that wrong, didn't he? This _cannot_ possibly be right, it _has_ to be a mishear.

“Y-.. M-... I'm sorry, what... did you say you were at...?” he asks with a slight shaking of his head.

Total mishear. Can only have been a mishear.

“'m inside of a Vaaault, Breadcrumb,” Jack answers with a little smirk. He drawls the word _Vault_ , as if to make sure Rhys really, _really_ gets it this time. “Why do you think I wanted you to hire a bunch of Vault Hunters, huh, Kiddo? They gotta get me outta here, it fucking sucks to be stuck inside of a Vault. Pretty lonely, if you know what I mean. No chicks around, and they don't serve any decent drinks here.”

Okay then, it hasn't been a mishear. Rhys shakes his head again and finally sinks down into Jack's office chair. There's no way his legs can carry him a minute longer.

“H-how... did you get... _in_ there?” he asks, completely incapable of fathoming Jack's words. “What Vault? I mean, what – wha – jus – hlgnnmh – _How_?!”

“Still asking the good questions there, I see,” Jack states. “Good job, Kitten. Keep on going like that and you're gonna make it far up the Hyperion corporate ladder.”

Rhys feels mocked and pulls a glare-pout. For someone stuck in a Vault, requiring Rhys' help, Jack is being pretty much of a dick right here.

The CEO of Hyperion chuckles softly and then sighs. “Truth is,” he says, “I don't know how I got stuck here, Pumpkin. As you know, I was searching for the Vault of the Warrior down on Pandora for the last couple of years now. Had the Key and everything, was using Angel's powers to charge it up. Well, Angel told me the Key was ready, so, naturally, I paid her a visit to investigate. Key seemed all powered up, wanted to prepare it for the transport, then Angel started screaming and everything exploded in purple light. Next thing I know, I woke up here, and I haven't found a way out since.”

“But... how do you know it's a Vault you're stuck inside of?” Rhys asks.

“Ah,” Jack makes. “Because there's a Vault Monster inside of here. See?”

The picture turns and, suddenly, a gigantic beast appears in Rhys' vision. Rhys makes a sound and jumps back in his chair. “Whahaha!” he squeaks. “What the! Is that thing alive?!”

Jack laughs, as if he pulled a successful prank on Rhys. “Yeah, it's alive alright,” he says. “But it's asleep. Inactive. Doesn't react to me. I think it only wakes up when the Vault gets opened, and I can assure you that fucking thing is clamped up tighter than a conservative's butthole in the middle of a gay bar.”

Rhys swallows. He has never seen a Vault Monster for real. This thing is... Jack is probably only as tall as one of its teeth is.

“But when the Vault Hunters get you,” he mumbles, “won't the Vault Monster... you know... wake up?”

“That's their problem then, not mine,” Jack says and turns the camera back around. “Why do you think I want you to hire them? They gotta find this Vault, open it up, and get me outta here alive. If that means them getting killed by the Vault Monster while I escape, I won't cry a tear after them. Well, Aurelia might get a memorial tablet, but knowing her, she'll put the head of the Monster up in her living room.”

Rhys huffs out a nervous chuckle. He does _not_ want to imagine what someone who kills a monster like _that_ and hangs its head up in their _living room_ is like. Doesn’t want to imagine it _at all_.

“Uhm, okay, so,” he begins and clears his throat. “How am I supposed to get a hold of these Vault Hunters…? Or the money to pay them with? I mean, Vaughn could probably transfer it to them, he‘s in accounting. But I don’t want anyone from Hyperion coming after us because they think we stole the money.”

“Yeah, no worries about that, Cupcake,” Jack says. “I’ll give you full authority to do whatever the fuck you want on Helios. You’ll basically be me. Just maybe not quite as sexy, but hey, we can’t have everything. You can code, right?”

“Uh, yeah,” Rhys says.

“Right. Saw that. You know the Lupex Flow?”

“The… yeah, but I’ve never used it. Hyperion Security is too advanced to be tricked by that.”

“No need to flatter me, Kiddo, I know I’m the best,” Jack claims. “We’re gonna use it now anyway, just alter it a little. Open up the Admin Hub. You got it?”

“It wants a bioscan,” Rhys notes.

“Course it does. I’ll hack the system now, but I’ll need your help with it, okay? Open another coding stream and start writing down the Lupex Flow. I’m gonna clink in wherever changes are needed. Don’t let me distract you, just keep on typing. You think you got that, Pumpkin?”

Rhys snorts. “Child’s play,” he says. He opens up a new stream and shakes out his hands. “Alright, let’s dance,” he mutters, and then he sets his hands to work.

He’s good at coding. It’s not his main occupation, but it’s integral to his work, and he used to do it for fun in college. His fingers fly over the keyboard, typing down the code of the Lupex Flow. When he reaches line eight of the template, Jack starts to join in.

He’s _fast_. Letters and numbers appear on the screen so quickly that Rhys can hardly follow. When he risks a quick glance over at the video transmission Jack is sending, he realises Jack must be typing on the same device that he uses for this broadcast, because Rhys can see his fingertips playing over the camera.

“I said don't let me distract you,” Jack chides, and Rhys feels a surge of shame because he got caught. “I know I'm a sight to behold, but stay focused, Breadcrumb.”

“Sorry,” Rhys mumbles and diverts his attention back to the coding stream.

It grows fast underneath his flying fingers, with Jack altering and reworking it. It's fascinating what this man can do... Rhys has to force himself to stay focused, and not watch Jack's tweaks instead of his own flow of code in the stream window.

“Done,” he says after a while and adds the last few letters to the template. “Now how is this supposed to be – holy sonofaskaglick!”

Jack laughs, adding his last alterations as well. “Pretty neat, huh?” he says. “Told you we could make something out of that old hat. Alright, now you should be able to redirect the Admin Hub over to my frequency, and I can give it the bioscan it requires.”

Rhys, still awed, activates the Admin Hub again. “That is amazing,” he breathes as he tells the program to take a reroute over the newly opened portal of their code. “I didn't know you could use the Lupex' sidelines for framing a quint-contential redirection process.”

“You're welcome, Kiddo,” Jack warbles. “Always happy to pass on some knowledge. Ah, yeah, here we are. Just gonna scan my handsome genes, aaaaand... jackpot. Here you go, Pancake. Hyperion is now officially yours till I come back to take it again. Which, by the way, I can always undo, alright? So don't get any ideas over there.”

“Uh, yeah, of course not,” Rhys assures. In all his strive to climb up the Hyperion ladder, he never actually thought about taking the throne away from Jack. Because Jack is amazing, and why would Rhys do that? “Wait, does that mean you... actually expect me to _run_ Hyperion while you're not here?”

“Nah, course not, Kiddo,” Jack answers. “I'll do it. Now that you boosted my signal by turning up the interspacial recipient range, I have access to my computer. I can run Hyperion from here.”

Rhys frowns slightly. “How are you even doing this?” he wonders. “Shouldn't every device you have with you have run out of batteries by now?”

Jack only grins at him widely. “I'm Handsome Jack, Baby,” he announces. “Ain't no Vault holding _me_ down. Eh, well, just, you know, captive. But never mind, with your help, I can just sit here and wait till the Vault Hunters arrive. And, again, don't let them know who hires them. Better not even tell them you're Hyperion. They won't like that very much. Which is funny when you think about it, cause they all use Hyperion loot when they find it. Which reminds me, feel free to equip them with some legendary tech. Will heighten the chances they'll make it to me in one piece. Breathing.”

“Uh, sure,” Rhys says. Sometimes, he forgets how powerful Hyperion is; how much control Handsome Jack actually wields. “Anything else I can do for now?”

“No,” Jack replies. “Unless you can order me a pizza to this fucking shithole.”

“I don't think so,” Rhys says flatly. “What _are_ you eating down there, anyway?”

“Don't ask things you don't wanna know the answer to,” Jack says simply. “I'll hit you up later, Kitten. Lemme know as soon as you got the Vault Hunters on board, okay?”

“Uh, how do I –”

“Leave the computer running so I can access it.”

“But what's with the –”

“Oh, and don't let anyone on Helios know what we're up to!”

“But Jack, how do I –”

“It was fun talking to you, Kid. You got this. Jack out!”

“Jack!” Rhys shouts. But Jack has already ended the video transmission. Rhys huffs and types something into their coding window.

_How can I reach out to you if I have any questions??_

He waits a while, but there is no answer coming. “Yeah, course not,” Rhys grumbles. “It's not like you expect me to help you or anything, Jack.”

Frustrated, he closes their coding windows and gets out of the chair to walk back over towards the office doors. He has to figure out how to contact four Vault Hunters, how to transfer Hyperion money to them, organise some weapons, and not let anybody know about it. Oh, and he has to do all that without being able to contact Jack.

Well, before Rhys does any of that, he has another important point on his agenda.

He leaves Jack's office, walks right home with Vaughn on his heels, and has a deep and undisturbed sleep on the sofa.


	8. Chapter 8

When Rhys wakes up, it feels like a déjà vu. Vaughn is leaning over him, but this time, Rhys is not lying on the kitchen floor, but on their sofa, and the tiredness he feels is of a very different kind than before. It’s the tiredness of someone who has lacked sleep and now overslept hopelessly to make up for the lost hours. His head is full of cotton and his lids are sore and heavy.

“Vaughn,” he mumbles. “Hey. How long’ve been ‘sleep?”

“Bro, you slept through the entire day,” Vaughn replies. “It’s been like 14 hours. It’s 7 p.m. right now.”

“What?!” Rhys immediately jerks into an upright position. “Jesus, Vaughn! Why didn’t you wake me earlier?!”

“I tried, once,” Vaughn says, and he looks troubled. “You just muttered something and turned around and kept on sleeping. So I thought I’d let you sleep. I just wanted to check on you to see if you were even still breathing, and then you woke up.”

“Shit,” Rhys groans and rubs his forehead. “I should have hired the Vault Hunters already. If Jack finds out about this, he’ll murder me.”

“Vault Hunters?” Vaughn asks, and his eyes behind his glasses grow a few sizes. “What Vault Hunters? Wait, have you _really_ talked to Jack?!”

“Yeah, it’s a long story,” Rhys says. “I’ll tell it to you, but bro, I’m starving. Can we order some skag burgers with those curly fries? I need to stuff my mouth with something, or I’ll die.”

“Bro!” Vaughn exclaims. “You didn’t speak a single word with me since you came out of that elevator, except for grunts and groans and ‘sleep now, will explain later’, and then you were practically comatose for 14 hours, and now you just said something about Vault Hunters and you talking to Handsome Jack, and you want to leave me hanging over _burgers_?”

“Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeease, Vaughn!” Rhys whines and flops back down onto the sofa. “Pleaheaheaaaaaaase! I’m starving! _Starving_ , Vaughn! And then I can’t tell you about the Vault Hunters anymore!”

“You’re the worst friend ever,” Vaughn states, but he grabs his intercom and orders them burgers.

While they wait, he tells Rhys how he was strolling around the Hub of Heroism, waiting for Rhys to return, and how, suddenly, Vasquez had shown up, asking Vaughn why he was lurking around the Hub and not working. It had been a walk on the tightrope to come up with a plausible answer for him and get him off Vaughn's back.

“And then you returned, and you looked like hell,” Vaughn ends his little story. “And you wouldn’t tell me anything. So I thought it hadn't worked out. But now you're saying that... you really got to talk to Handsome Jack?”

“Oh, more than just talked,” Rhys grumbles and sips at his coke. “He wants me to help him get outside of that Vault he's stuck in, so he gave me full authority to hire and equip some Vault Hunters so they'll try to find that Vault and rescue him.”

Vaughn stares at him. Rhys imagines that he must have looked exactly like that too when Jack told him about his misery.

Before Vaughn can say anything to this, there's a knock at their front door. “FOOD!” Rhys exclaims and jumps up from the sofa. He hasn't moved this fast in centuries.

Half of his fries are already gone when he comes back into the living room, carrying their food boxes. “Oh my God,” he groans in bliss, mouth full of delicious potato curls, “this is so freaking good, Vaughn. I want to marry each and everyone of these curly fries.”

“I think that's fucked up,” Vaughn comments and grabs his food box from Rhys before his best friend can eat all of his fries, too.

“Aaaw, I take everything back, I want to marry this skag burger. They put the smokey sauce on it. Vaaaaughn, they put the _smokey sauce_.”

“I know, that's what I ordered,” Vaughn says as he starts to eat too; far less enthusiastic than his flatmate. “ _Some_ of us are good friends while the others _still_ haven't told me yet what the hell is going on with Jack and the Vault Hunters.”

“Right,” Rhys mumbles, his mouth still full. “Sorry, bro. Too tired, too hungry. Gonna tell you everything right now. So, Jack is stuck inside of a Vault.”


	9. Chapter 9

“And that's about it,” Rhys ends, stuffing another spoonful of ice cream into his mouth. “Now I gotta hire the Vault Hunters and give them some good weapons, and then, I don't know, send them off to find the Vault that Jack's stuck in.”

“That's crazy,” Vaughn mutters. “That's so fucking crazy, bro.”

“I know, bro,” Rhys nods. “I'm gonna need your help with the money transferral. And I have no clue on how to even get in touch with the Vault Hunters. Or how to get them some legendary weapons. I mean, it's not like this stuff is lying around for every Middle Manager to grab it. People will get suspicious if I get some quality equipment, even with my highest level clearance from Jack.”

“Why don't you just use that to your advantage?” Vaughn asks. “You got full access to everything Jack has, right? Just send a demand out from his private computer, telling Production to deliver a collection of the finest Hyperion equipment up to Jack's office and collect it from there.”

Rhys stares at Vaughn with wide eyes. “Vaughn, you're a _genius_!” he exclaims. “That's, that's _brilliant_ , bro! This way, no one will even know that it was me demanding to get all of that stuff!”

Vaughn nods. “And the money should be no problem,” he says. “If you just send me an official request with your full level clearance, I can transfer you the money in seconds without anyone questioning it.”

“Bro, what would I do without you,” Rhys says and a giant smile stretches the corners of his mouth up.

“Marry curly fries and skag burgers,” Vaughn comments with a smile back. “And not get Handsome Jack out of the Vault he managed to get himself stuck in.”

“Man, he better put statues of us up in the Hub of Heroism,” Rhys comments.

“We deserve a legendary weapon named after us,” Vaughn agrees. “And a pay raise.”

“Definitely a pay raise,” Rhys says. “And the second-highest rank Hyperion has to offer. Created just for us. Coming with an entire floor for just you and me, and a penthouse flat, and at least one really nice corporate car with a boost and a seat heating. … What's wrong, bro?”

“That all sounds nice, you know,” Vaughn says with a sad look on his features. “But I'm pretty sure I won't get any of that. Jack talked to _you_ , he wants _you_ to handle that Vault Hunter business. And he said not to tell anyone at Hyperion. I doubt he'll appreciate me helping you out.”

Rhys frowns with a little pout on his lips. “Well, he gave me full command over the operation,” he states. “And he gave me the highest possible clearance. If I decide I'll need you on my team, I have the right to do so. And if Jack doesn't like that, well, I'll let him be stuck inside of that Vault forever.”

That makes Vaughn smile a little bit. “Thanks, bro,” he says.

“Never without you, bro,” Rhys assures him. “So, let's get this plan down. I will contact the Vault Hunters and summon them to a relatively safe space on Pandora that doesn't scream _Hyperion_ at their faces. I'll ask them what their fee will be. I will send you an according request with my Jack-blessed highest authority clearance. You will transfer me the money and I'll give it to the Vault Hunters. Then I will hand them all the information I have, as well as the equipment I ordered to Handsome Jack's office and took with me down to our meeting point on Pandora. The Vault Hunters will grab the equipment, be on their way, get Jack outside of that Vault, and you and I will be celebrated as Hyperion's newest generation of heroes.”

“What if the Vault Hunters won't accept your invitation?” Vaughn asks. “Or the job?”

“Oh, they will,” Rhys claims. “After all the money and loot they'll get? And they're not called Vault Hunters for nothing.”

“What if they get suspicious when you offer them so much Hyperion tech?” Vaughn continues asking.

“That, uh. That's. Actually. A very good question, Vaughn. I hadn't thought about that.”

“Hmm,” Vaughn makes. “What if we say we stole it from Hyperion?”

“I don't think they would believe that,” Rhys doubts. “I don't really look like someone who could steal from Hyperion and get away with it.”

“Hm,” Vaughn makes again. “Maybe not,” he says then. “But you _do_ look like an eccentric nerd.”

“Whoa there, bro, way to make a compliment,” Rhys grumbles.

“No, I mean...” Vaughn shoves his glasses back up the bridge of his nose. “I mean you could dress in really eccentric clothes and claim you're a collector of rare Hyperion items, and that you want this Vault opened in hopes to find more rare items inside. And that you will provide the Vault Hunters with some of the items you have – maybe some you have double or that are less interesting to you personally – if they agree to hand over any rare Hyperion loot they might find inside of the Vault to you.”

Rhys stares again. “Bro,” he says slowly. “Were you _not_ dropped on your head as a baby? Where do all your good ideas come from?”

“I _do_ have those sometimes,” Vaughn defends himself.

“Bro, you're brilliant,” Rhys announces. “I officially make you the Head of Idea Spawning and Financial Support Providence in this project.”

“I demand a plate,” Vaughn says.

“Accepted,” Rhys nods. “Now, Head of ISFSP, with your approval, I think we're ready to hire ourselves some Vault Hunters.”


	10. Chapter 10

Aurelia Hammerlock's number isn't really hard to find. Rhys thought it would be more difficult to get a hold of her, but she and Jack seem to talk quite often, as she's saved as a favourite in his list of contacts.

“Jackie!” she warbles as the call connects. “What a pleasant surprise, darling! I was _just_ getting bored out of my mind when you – oh, dearie me. I had always suspected you were a fan of plastic surgery, but don't you think you went a _bit_ overboard with this?”

“I, uh, am not Jack,” Rhys says.

“And you got your humour removed, too! Pity! It was one of your rare good qualities.”

Rhys glare-pouts. He doesn't enjoy being made fun of. “My name is Rhys,” he says. “Jack asked me to contact you because he wants to hire you for a job.”

“Fabulous!” Aurelia exclaims. “Like I said, I _was_ getting seriously bored over here. What does Jackie need? An assassination? Espionage? Fashion advice?”

“He needs you to find and open a Vault,” Rhys replies. “And kill the Monster inside, should it awaken.”

“Oh, that old tale again?” Aurelia asks and yawns. “Tell Jackie I have no interest in opening another Vault for him. Last time was fun – well, in most parts, at least, – but looking at the outcome, it's better not to be repeated.”

“Uh, well, it's not about the Vault itself,” Rhys explains. “Jack just needs it opened for... see, he's, uh... kiiiiiiinda stuck inside of it...?”

Aurelia is quiet for a second and then she bursts out laughing. Rhys glare-pouts again, because this is _not_ funny to him in the _slightest!_

“Marvelous!” she cheers. “Absolutely marvelous! Oh, this _definitely_ improved my mood!”

“Look, he said you would help him if I pay you enough for it,” Rhys says, sounding a bit miffed as his patience is fading. “So, how much is it that you want?”

Aurelia stops laughing then, chortles a little, and then she sighs heavily, returning back to normal. “Listen, my dear child,” she says. “I have helped Jack in the past. I have helped him find the Vault on Elpis, I have helped him come into power in Hyperion. I won't say I regret it, because, like I said, it mostly _was_ a lot of fun. But Jack is a horrible person. Even for _my_ standards, and, darling, they're _bad_. I still help him occasionally when I see a gain in it; mostly it is for entertainment reasons. But if he is stuck inside of a Vault? Darling, I think that is for the better.”

Rhys is so taken aback by this that he doesn't even know what to say for a moment.

Jack was so sure she would help him. He seemed so impressed by her, so certain she was an ally. But all Aurelia does is laugh at him, say nasty things about him, and outright refuse to help this cause. She was supposed to be the easiest one to recruit. Now she's turning out to be a hurdle.

“Look, I need you on this job,” Rhys repeats. “Isn't there anything I can do to –”

“Darling, I'm getting awfully bored with this conversation,” Aurelia interrupts him. “Unless there's anything interesting you have to say to me, I'm inclined to hang up now and call it a day.”

Interesting... Right. Aurelia is all about interesting things. If Rhys offers her something interesting about this job, she might actually still be persuaded.

He closes his eyes and thinks for a second.

“Well,” he says after a moment. “Guess there is no way I can convince you to take this job, then. Shame. Jack told me you would kill the Vault Monster and hang its head up in your living room, and I was _so_ looking forward to seeing that happen.”

Aurelia gives a delighted giggle. “How utterly amusing,” she states. “I guess the head of a Vault monster _would_ look quite astonishing in my favourite living room. Oh, Alistair would _hate_ it! I should send him a picture of it.”

Rhys has to smile a little victorious smile at that. It appears that he's going in the right direction here. “Seems like the other Vault Hunters will get a pick at that interior decoration now,” he sighs, “Which reminds me, could I at least ask you for your help? I never contacted Vault Hunters before myself, and I really don't know how to go about it. Have you ever talked to a Siren, for example? How do I politely hire one for a Vault hunt?”

“A Siren?” Aurelia asks, interest in her voice. “Well, I talked to Lilith once, but I can’t say I succeeded in hiring her. What is this one called?”

“Maya,” Rhys replies.

“Oh!” Aurelia cheers. “Marvelous! I heard she can lock people in an orb of sheer energy! Imagine the possibilities!”

“I know, I know, sounds pretty awesome, right?” Rhys states. “Oh, and there’s this guy called Zer0? Though Jack said he doesn’t even know if that is a guy or an alien or something entirely else, so I sure don’t know how to contact _him._ ”

“How _intriguing!_ ” Aurelia exclaims. ”I must say, _very_ mysterious! Who’s the third one?”

“A girl called Gaige,” Rhys informs her. “She’s supposed to have a giant killer robot that she built herself? So I don’t want to get off on the wrong foot with her, if you know what I mean.”

“Oh, fabulous!” Aurelia chirps and claps her hands together ecstatically. “I _definitely_ need one of those for myself! Do you think I can commission her on one?”

“No idea,” Rhys says. “Guess she’ll be busy with this Vault hunting first, but maybe after?”

Aurelia laughs again at that. “Oh, I see what you're doing there, darling,” she claims. “Very clever. Fine, you sparked my interest. I shall join your endeavour, but not to help Jack. I will hunt the Vault and kill the Monster, but whatever happens afterwards is not part of the deal anymore. Also, I _insist_ on taking its head home now, that is non-negotiable.”

“Of course, yes,” Rhys hurries to say. “I, uh, will make sure to inform the others about it when I hire them.”

“Right,” Aurelia nods. “Now about contacting some Vault Hunters –”

“Uh, see, while we're at that,” Rhys interrupts her nervously. “Jack said they shouldn't know it's Hyperion who hires them. So I wanted to pretend I’m a collector of rare Hyperion loot who wants them to open the Vault for me so that I can, uh… you know, loot it…”

Aurelia giggles again. “Oh, sweetheart, you should have started with that,” she says. “Would have sounded far more interesting right from the beginning.”

“Uh, good interesting or bad interesting?” Rhys asks.

“Listen, Vault Hunters are always up for money and loot,” Aurelia says. “Just offer them a fee and tell them about the Vault, and they'll pretty much be off on their own already.”

“Alright,” Rhys mumbles, barely convinced.

“They just won't be happy about you claiming the loot,” Aurelia continues. “You might want to find another solution for that.”

“Oh, yeah, no, I'll claim that it's just rare Hyperion loot that I'm after,” Rhys says. “For my not so real collection. Jack told me I should equip the team with quality Hyperion weapons, so I thought me being a collector would be a good explanation as to why I can hand out legendary equipment to people.”

“Oh, a smart one,” Aurelia acknowledges. “How charming.”

“Thank you,” Rhys says proudly. “So, uh, how do I contact them best now?”

“Their contacts should be easy to find on the ECHOnet,” Aurelia says. “Like I said, Vault Hunters are always up for trouble they can get themselves into. Where and when shall we meet?”

“Two days from now, on the 19th, at a place called _Redclay Canyon_. There's a little town there that is relatively safe.”

“Relatively. What a nice word to put it,” Aurelia says. “Fine, then. I shall make according preparations. I might be fashionably late, though. I expect that you wait for me.”

“Of course,” Rhys mutters, sounding miffed again. “Anything else I should know before contacting the others?”

“Just pray that Jack made a better choice than last time,” Aurelia answers. Then she's gone, leaving Rhys confused and frightened in Jack's office chair, staring at the screen that is suddenly empty.


	11. Chapter 11

After this encounter, Rhys decides not to call the other Vault Hunters one by one. Instead, he records an ECHO message to send to all of them.

Or, well, rather several.

It’s not that easy to sound the right away, he realises. How _does_ he even want to sound in his role as a collector of Hyperion goods? Suave? Cool? Arrogant?

The answer is easy: He wants to sound like Jack. But he can’t. Nobody sounds like Jack, except for Jack himself. And Jack can’t send out this invitation personally.

Rhys has tried to contact him again. When he planted his ass down in Jack’s yellow throne behind the desktop, he typed a message out in hopes Jack would read it when he accesses the computer again. But he hasn’t gotten a reply yet.

So far, Jack has been jarringly absent. No messages to Rhys, no big, public announcement on Helios that he is back. Rhys is slightly worried again that what happened yesterday night were just dreams and visions. That he didn’t _actually_ talk to Jack. But he still has full access to all of Jack’s computer. So _something_ really must have happened.

After several failed attempts, a few frustrated groans, and a whole lot of desperate whining, Rhys has finally recorded a message he thinks is good enough to send to the Vault Hunters. His voice sounds snobbish but serious as he says, “Hello, Vault Hunters. My name is Clemombert O'Tierney, and I have an offer to make you. If you want to help me find a Vault, if you want to get handsomely paid for doing so, meet me in Redclay Canyon on the 19th of this month and we will talk business. Appropriate equipment for the hunt will be provided.”

He is quite proud of himself, he must say. If he were a Vault Hunter, he would totally come to this meeting. He just hopes the actual Vault Hunters are thinking the same...

He checks the computer again. There’s still no message from Jack. For a moment, Rhys is so miffed that he debates whether or not he should even update Jack on the progress of the mission. Then he sighs and leaves Jack a message. _I contacted the Vault Hunters. We’ll meet on the 19 th. Aurelia agreed to be on board. Rhys._

He stares at the message for a while, but, of course, there is no answer. Grumbling to himself, Rhys gets up from the chair and decides to get to the second item on his agenda: Getting more sleep. It's late by now, and he doesn't want to get out of rhythm. Also, he's still tired, and, frankly, Jack is going on his nerves by now.


	12. Chapter 12

Of course, Jack finally calls in the far too early morning hours.

“Hey, Kiddo, it's me!” he exclaims, and Rhys jumps up in bed with a scream, grabbing his pillow.

“What!” he squeaks. “What is – Oh my God, _Jack_! Do you know what _time_ it is?!”

“Uh, yeah, 6:44,” Jack says. “Why? Aw, you were still _sleeping_ , weren't you! Look at your cute bed-hair, Kitten! Aw, I wanna _muss_ it!”

Rhys glare-pouts. Then he frowns and glare-pouts. “How can you even see me?” he asks. “Is there... oh my God, is there a _camera_ in my bedroom?!”

“ECHO implants, Cupcake,” Jack warbles. “You had that link up between you and my computer, remember? To upload your cute little program to hack it? I used it backwards to get permanent access to your frequency. And there's a mirror on your wall, so I can see you through your ECHO eye. Nice posters, by the way. When I'm back, I'll sign them for you.”

Rhys is stunned for just a second. Then he's embarrassed. Then he is 100% annoyed. “That’s so not right,” he comments grumpily “At least give me a proper call next time. And stop spying on me!”

“Sorry, Pumpkin, won’t happen again,” Jack says, in a tone that makes Rhys doubt that Jack even cares in the slightest. “So you contacted the Vault Hunters? How is it going?”

“I haven’t heard back from them yet,” Rhys replies and rubs the sleep out of his eyes. “I don’t even know _if_ I will hear back from them at all, or if they’ll just show up at Redclay Canyon. That’s our meeting point.”

“Nice pick,” Jack acknowledges. “But no worries, they’ll come. Vault Hunters always jump when you dangle some money or a good chunk of loot in front of their eyes. And, in this case, they will get both, so. Is that a tattoo on your left side? Lemme see it, I didn't know you have one.”

Rhys is pouting even harder.

“Alright, Kitten, listen,” Jack says, jumping back to business, even though his tone didn't change at all. “The reason I'm calling you is that I got new important information. I tracked the signal from my computer and calculated its exact location in relation to the device that I am using down here. That means I can now give you the precise coordinates of the Vault that I am stuck in.”

Rhys forgets to pout for a moment and blinks instead. “You… You know where the Vault is?” he asks. “That’s… actually amazing. Where?”

“I’ll send you the location,” Jack promises. “Thought it might help you guys in finding me faster.”

“Yeah, it sure does,” Rhys mumbles, impressed.

He wonders if Jack spent the entire time he didn’t contact Rhys on trying to get a hold of these coordinates. How desperate must he be, stuck inside of a Vault, sitting next to a sleeping Vault Monster?

Pretty desperate, Rhys concludes.

“Listen, Jack, I –” he begins. But Jack chooses the same moment to continue his babbling.

“Alright, that’s all, gotta go now, Kiddo,” he claims. “Gotta finally make some arrangements on Helios. Himme up if you need anything, alright? I’ll reply to you at my earliest convenience.”

“You should –”

“Really need to show me that tattoo next time. I wanna know how far down your body it goes. Alright, talk to you later, Sweetcheeks! Au revoir, I’m feeling fancy today!”

Rhys decides to go back to his pouting now. Jack is absolutely _horrible_. Horrible, annoying, and an arrogant ass. For someone who requires Rhys’ help so badly, he sure knows how to make it seem like it’s the other way around. And Rhys should totally leave him hanging for this.

He sighs and shakes his head, and then gets up and decides to have a luxurious shower. There’s a lot he has to do today, and he better get going so it’s all handled in time.

Before he undresses to climb into the shower cabin, he makes sure to cover the bathroom mirror with a towel.


	13. Chapter 13

Rhys always knew that Vaughn liked guns.

He remembers Vaughn telling him about the Dahl he wanted to get for himself, remembers how his eyes lit up every time that he mentioned it, how he showed it to Rhys on his ECHO device for what felt like a hundred times in a single day. Rhys is not sure what Hyperion thinks of people buying snipers from Dahl. But now that he is in absolute charge, maybe that doesn't even matter anymore.

The list that Vaughn presents to him during breakfast is astonishing.

“Wow,” Rhys mumbles, his mouth full of cereal. “I mean, I knew Hyperion made a lot of high-quality gear, but seeing it all in one spot like this? That’s amazing. What do you suggest which ones we get for them?”

“Well, I studied the profiles of the Vault Hunters,” Vaughn says all professionally and shoves his glasses back up the bridge of his nose, “and you _definitely_ got to get them Sniper Rifles. Both Aurelia and Zer0 are known for their sniping skills, and they sure will want at least one option each.”

Rhys nods. “Okay,” he says. “So we’ll get them two _Morningstars_ with different elements, and maybe one or two _Invaders_? What else?”

“Maya seems to like SMGs, so we should get her a _Bitch_ ,” Vaughn suggests. “Elemental, of course. Maybe give her two options to choose from.”

Rhys nods. “Incendiary is always helpful, I think. So, we got Zer0, Aurelia, and Maya covered with weapons. What about Gaige?”

“Oh, we _need_ to get Gaige a _Conference Call_ ,” Vaughn states. “Absolute must-have. I'd say Slag element, should come in the most handy. Zer0 might like one, too, but maybe a different element? Oh, and Gaige will definitely want a _Fibber_ as well. The kind that ricochets? She'll _slay_ bandits with that, it's gonna be _so_ friggin' amazing!”

Rhys smiles slightly. “Wow, you really seem to got this, bro,” he notes. “Glad to be working with such a competent ISFSP.”

Vaughn smiles right back at him. “You also might want to equip them with some _Bee_ shields,” he adds. “And throw in some singularity grenades as well. Maybe a _Quasar_ or two against enemies with shields. Then they should all be good to go.”

“You are the best, Vaughn,” Rhys comments. “I'll go up to Jack's office and get all of that ordered, and then we can –”

“Attention loyal subjects,” a voice booms over the speakers. “This is yours truly, the one and only, Handsome Jack. I know a lot of you have missed me – and the ones who haven't, no worries, I have better things to do right now than to come and find you personally, so you still have a chance to run, get going – but fret not, your worries are over. I have officially returned to Helios, so your miserable lives once again have meaning. If you wanna throw a party, I'd suggest tonight, 11 PM, Hub of Heroism. First drink is on me. Now go back to your work and make sure I don't regret coming back to you. That's it for now, it was nice talking ta ya. Handsome Jack out!”

“Ugh,” Rhys grumbles. “Seems like he finally deigned to inform us of his presence.”

Vaughn appears to be absolutely awed. “It’s really him,” he mumbles. “Guess part of me still doubted this could actually be true. But we’re really helping Handsome Jack to get out of that Vault he’s stuck in.”

“Yep, it’s really him,” Rhys sighs. “And trust me, working with him is a huge pain in the ass, so be prepared for that. Guess I’ll have company when I go up to his office to order the gear from there, then.”

“Sounds better than the work that I have to do,” Vaughn states. “Lunch break shopping spree still stands?”

“Yep,” Rhys confirms. “Gonna get me all dressed up in horribly eccentric _fashion_.” He says the last word with an unrealistic French accent. French accents make everything sound fancier somehow.

“Alright, looking forward to that,” Vaughn grins. “We’ll meet at the _Hyperior_ at lunchtime, then. And let me know if you need anything else in the meantime.”

“Sure will,” Rhys says with a nod. “Take care, bro. And if you want an excuse to stop working for a moment, hit me up and I’ll give you highest-clearance-permission to leave your desk.”

Vaughn’s grin becomes even wider. “You know, I like the new perspective of our jobs here at Hyperion,” he states.

“Yeah, bro,” Rhys says. “Let’s just hope it’ll be worth the trouble in the end.”


	14. Chapter 14

Rhys does _not_ have company as he orders the gear to be brought into Jack’s office. Or at least not in the way he thought he would have it. Jack _is_ using the screen, but only in the form of an activated diversion, which means Jack is probably talking to someone from his device in the Vault, redirecting the call over his computer so it will look like the connection is being upheld from his office. Smart, Rhys has to admit. He’s still miffed Jack’s never present when Rhys is trying to do stuff for him.

He decides not to disturb Jack (he’s not _that_ desperate to make himself noticed by Jack, thank you very much) and instead goes ahead to forwarding his order for the Vault Hunters' gear to Production. It feels awesome to issue a command from Jack’s computer. Very powerful. Nobody will deny him what he wants if he just sends his request out with Jack’s personal ID this way. Rhys could get used to this, but since Jack can check what Rhys is doing from his computer, it might be better not to go wild with it.

He’s still not there, Jack. Not personally, that is. The diversion is still active, but Rhys can't see or hear what Jack is doing. Which probably means Jack can't see or hear what Rhys is doing either, as long as Rhys stays away from the computer. That means that Rhys can dare to have a closer look around the office while Production is processing his request, he muses. How many people get the chance to take a closer look around Jack’s office, after all?

The first thing he notices (after the obvious Jack-ness of the entire office) are the books. Jack has a _lot_ of them, even a little fireplace to sit by and read them if he wants to. Rhys grabs a few volumes and looks at their titles. He hasn’t read a book in quite a while, he must admit. _The Quaisarian Princess and the Everhungry Skag_ doesn’t sound like something that could get him back into it, though.

Jack has a lot of, uh, classics. But there are also books about Engineering, Coding, Programming, the history of Hyperion… Rhys has to pull himself together not to get stuck leafing through those volumes.

He stores the books where they belong, then takes a stroll around the giant Jack busts to the other side of the office. There’s only one shelf here, and it’s filled with… well… _stuff_ , to sum it up politely. Gimmicks and gizmos, a head with a goatee, a gun prototype, a certificate locked into a frame…

“Wait, does that mean Jack owns the Atlas corporation?!” Rhys reads the certificate another time. And then again, in case he read it wrong the first two times by accident. “That bastard,” he mumbles as he puts the frame back into the shelf. “Owner of two companies, but his ego’s fit for ten.”

Shaking his head, Rhys returns to the desk, ready to check how Production is doing. He should get a vase for the flowers still lying on the tabletop. Or maybe it’s already too late for that, he can’t tell. But dried flowers have their own kind of beauty, don’t they? And Jack won’t see them anyway, so Rhys doesn’t have to put thought into the –

He stops at the framed picture that is lying on Jack’s desktop upside-down. He never noticed it before, because it lies behind a stack of papers, hidden from view if he sits on Jack’s chair. Why does Jack have a picture on his desk but has it covered? Isn’t the point of the picture that it can be seen?

Rhys hesitates for a moment, then carefully picks the photo up to look at it. It’s a young girl, smiling into the camera. She looks happy and excited. Just a child, maybe four years old. Is… is that… Does Jack have a…?

“Your order has been delivered, sir,” the voice of the Hyperion system says over the speakers. Rhys jumps, caught and embarrassed, and quickly puts the photo back down on the desk where he found it. He hopes that Jack won’t notice that he looked at it. It feels far too intimate to have taken a glimpse at this picture.

The desks in front of Jack’s office are still empty. Rhys doesn’t know if Jack didn’t order his assistants back in because he wants Rhys to have unsupervised access to his office at all times, or because he doesn’t want to risk anyone noticing that he’s not really behind those doors. Either way, Rhys is thankful for it as he steps outside of the office into the corridor.

As ordered, the delivery has been placed in the small space that is decorated with the gigantic, ugly murals of Jack. Rhys marvels at the beautiful chests for a moment before he opens them and takes a step back.

“Holy shit,” he whispers, his eyes going wide. He has never seen so much high-quality Hyperion gear in one place, even though he’s working for this company. Purple, blue, and orange rarity, all brand new, all shiny and highly polished. He carefully reaches down and picks up a Sniper Rifle.

“If they don’t say yes to this, then I don’t know what they’d say yes to,” he mutters, feeling the cool, smooth metal underneath his fingertips.

“Oh, great, now you’re wasting ammo!” the Sniper Rifle complains.

Rhys screams and throws it back into the chest, staring at it before he decides that _nothing_ in this goddamn company is sane.


	15. Chapter 15

It’s no surprise Jack decides to call again when Rhys is dressed in the most ridiculous outfit.

“Hey, Pumpkin, it’s Jack-time!” he declares, and Rhys jumps about one foot away from the mirror in distress. The employee of the store isn’t even looking at him weird. Nothing in the world is able to agitate this guy.

“Jack!” Rhys hisses after having had a thorough look around. Except for him and Vaughn, nobody else is in this boutique, and the employee would rather die than pay Rhys any attention. “I thought we agreed you’d never do this again, remember?”

“Nope,” Jack says. “Can’t recall a thing. Hey, is that a new hat that you are wearing?”

“Uh,” Rhys makes. He is indeed wearing a hat right now. He thought Clemombert O’Tierney would be the type of guy to wear a really horrible hat at all times. “Yeah. Since I can’t present myself as an Hyperion employee, I thought I’d mime a rich, eccentric collector of Hyperion loot. You know, to have an excuse to hire the Vault Hunters for finding that Vault, looking for new things for my collection.”

“I like hats,” Jack states, as if that’s the only thing that matters here. “You should wear one more often. Really suits you, Kitten.”

Rhys is glare-pouting _hard_ at his reflection in the mirror. Jack is watching him through his ECHO eye again if he can see Rhys wearing a hat right now. Rhys is _not_ impressed by this new invasion of his privacy.

“What do you want, Jack?” he asks, sounding grumpy. “Do we _have_ to do this in the middle of this store?”

“I saw you ordered some gear from my computer,” Jack says. “Good stuff. The Vault Hunters will eat out of your hand if you offer this shit to them for their mission.”

“Vaughn picked those,” Rhys says defiantly. “He’s my best bro, I got him on board to help with this endeavour. Since he’s in accounting and really knows his way around guns, I think he’ll be a valuable addition to our –”

“Can he stay mum?” Jack asks. “Told you not to get anyone involved, Kiddo. Can’t risk anyone finding out that I’m not here.”

“Well, you’ll have to trust me on this, Jack,” Rhys states. “Unless you can somehow do all this yourself.”

Jack is quiet for just a second. Rhys feels adrenaline rushing through his body, unsure if it’s panic because goddamn, he challenged Jack!, or if it’s a thrill, because goddamn, he challenged Jack. Then Jack says, “Right,” and again, Rhys is unsure what the tone of his voice implies. “You’re gonna meet the Vault Hunters tomorrow, right?”

“Assuming they’ll show up, yeah,” Rhys replies. “Gave myself clearance for a trip to Pandora from your ID, car and everything. When I leave tomorrow morning, I should arrive at Redclay Canyon before it’s noon.”

“Good,” Jack says. “I hope you got a fortified car for the trip. Leave it at the Hyperion Outpost at Junction Height. Take the Fast Travel to Redclay from there. Vault Hunters won’t like you if you show up with a Hyperion car.”

“Alright,” Rhys says with a nod. “Anything else I need to know before I leave?”

“Let’s see, shall we? You got the weapons, I saw that. Got the coordinates, too. Vaughn’s accounting, you said? So you can pay them their money as soon as you meet them.”

Rhys nods. “Got my hat,” he offers and flicks the brim.

“Right,” Jack says again, and this time, Rhys can hear the grin in it. “And you’re prepared for your way to Redclay. Sounds like you got all that you need then, Princess.”

“Good,” Rhys comments. “Then I’d say I’ll hit you up when the meeting with the Vault Hunters is over.”

“Yeah, sounds good, Cupcake,” Jack says. “Just be careful on Pandora, okay? It’s a shitshow. Make sure you equip yourself with some kind of weapon.”

“I’ll be fine,” Rhys promises. “And if things get messy, Vaughn can send some Loader Bots my way.”

“Wouldn’t rely on _those_ to save you,” Jack states. Before Rhys can answer, Jack has already left, and so it’s just Rhys and the disinterested employee left, until Vaughn comes out of the changing cabin.


	16. Chapter 16

It’s more of a coincidence than actual planning that Rhys ends up on the party that night. He went up to Jack’s office one last time to check if everything he needs is really planned and ordered as he requested it, and when the elevator spews him back out in the Hub of Heroism, the party is there. People mingling and drinking, talking and drinking, dancing and drinking. Mostly just drinking. Free drinks never go to waste on Helios.

Luckily, everybody is too busy to notice Rhys, and he’s just about to squeeze his way through the masses to go back home and get some sleep before his trip tomorrow when a loud, familiar voice booms, “IIIIIIIIIII’m back, bitches! Daddy’s home!”

Rhys freezes, together with everyone else inside the giant room. But unlike the others, he doesn’t break out into cheers and clapping only a second later. This is Jack’s voice. Jack’s _face_. Towering above the others on a gallery. He grins widely, his arms spread generously to show himself off, bathing in applause and exultation. Rhys blinks a few times, but the image stays. Jack. Here. On Helios. In person.

But that can’t be. Jack is stuck in that Vault, he just talked to Rhys about it earlier. What horrible, stupid game is it that Jack is playing with them again? And why didn’t he tell Rhys anything about it?

Jack gets down from the gallery in an elegant hop, then throws his arms wide again as he parades through his subjects like a king. People make way for him, still cheering and clapping, and the more courageous ones even try to get a shoulder-pat or a handshake in. This _fucker_. Gone for two weeks without notice, could have been about _anywhere_ – a business trip, gone to some sunshiney planet with two hot celebrity chicks and some _Engorge_ – it wouldn’t have been the first freaking time. And yet, people celebrate like he came back from the dead after months of absence, simply because Jack stages it like a miracle, simply because he _asks them to._ Rhys bets some of those people didn’t even notice Jack was gone and just learned it from coworkers who worried over it.

A blazing glare-pout on his features, Rhys starts his way towards Jack with heels and elbows. Some people complain and jostle back, some refuse to let him through, but Rhys is fuelled by very rightful anger, and he shoves and pushes his way to Jack relentlessly. He reaches him as he’s already sipping on a drink, chatting with someone from management. Rhys, not even thinking, grabs him by the arm and hisses, “I think we need to _talk_ , Jack!”

Jack turns his head and looks at him in surprise. For a second, Rhys can see something like panic flash up in his eyes, uncertainty, and it’s enough to make him sure of one thing. This is not the real Jack. Jack would never look at Rhys like that.

Fake-Jack catches himself quite easily again, though. “Heh, wait your _turn_ , Kiddo,” he says, but he pulls Rhys closer and holds him there, one large hand on Rhys’ back. “Well, Jeff, seems like I have a superfan right here that needs my attention. We’ll chat later, awright? Greet your wife and daughter from me.”

“It’s Jason, and I have a son,” the guy from management corrects. Fake-Jack isn’t even listening any longer. His arm thrown around Rhys’ shoulders, he makes his way through the crowd with him, sipping on his drink, greeting people, calling out some indifferent sentences. Despite Rhys’ grumpiness, it’s fascinating to watch people’s reactions. With these insignificant drops of attention, everybody in the room feels noticed by Jack, valued by Jack. He treats them like crap, but he is their hero. And Rhys, only a few days ago, would have been just the same, standing among them, marvelling at his hero from afar. Now, he’s walking right by Jack’s side, so close that their bodies touch, and all he feels is anger at the man who’s trapped inside of a Vault, pretending to be here. How things can change with only a few phone calls…

Fake-Jack leads Rhys into the elevator to his office, going back up where Rhys just came from. As soon as the doors close and the elevator has brought them out of sight, Fake-Jack seems to droop and slumps against the wall. “Oh God, I _hate_ big audiences like that,” he mutters, and despite his voice still being the same, he sounds nothing like Jack anymore now.

“You’re not Jack,” Rhys states, arms crossed. “So who are you?”

“I’m Tim,” Fake -ack says. “Uh, Timothy Lawrence. One of Jack’s doppelgangers? The first one, actually. Doesn’t mean I got a better job than the other ones, though… He told me to make an appearance tonight to convince people that he’s really back on Helios. Told me to find you too if I could. Said you, uh. Were the captain of our boat or something?”

“Yeah, you could call it that, since I’m steering this stupid shit tanker,” Rhys grumbles. “Has he told you what’s going on with him?”

“No, just said he was inconvenienced for a while,” Tim says. “And that you were in charge of things for now. ‘Pretty boy with the fake arm and the temple port’, he called you. And asked me to ask you about your tattoos. I have _no_ idea what he means by that.”

Rhys’ glare-pout makes an impressive reappearance. “Well, great,” he grunts. “So you will patrol around Helios from time to time pretending to be Jack, so people will actually believe he’s here until he really makes his return himself?”

“Seems like it, yeah,” Timothy nods. He looks miserable. It’s a very strange look on Jack’s face, admittedly. “I’m supposed to keep it down as much as possible, just let glimpses of me being caught every now and then, so people won’t ask questions. He said he will handle all the real work from where he is right now, and to keep out of business things at all costs. Jack never lets us handle any business. We’re just there to entertain the masses, you know? Man, I’m really bad with masses. Did I… Did I do an okay job down there, you think?”

Rhys sighs and lets his arms drop to his sides. “Yeah, you did fine,” he says in defeat. “Typical of Jack not to tell me about any of this. Would have been nice to know there is another player on my field.”

“Well, that’s Jack for you,” Timothy says with a shrug. “Always nice doing work for him. Listen, I have no idea what’s going on here, but if you need anything from me, just tell me, alright? Uh… Rhys, was it? I’ll be your man.”

“Yes, I’m Rhys,” Rhys confirms with a nod. “Nice to meet you, Timothy. I wish Jack was a bit more like you.”

A smile spreads over Tim’s face at that. It’s a real smile, a warm smile, a happy smile. Rhys doubts he will ever see a smile like that on the real Jack’s features. “My pleasure,” he says. “It’s nice to meet you too, Rhys.”


	17. Chapter 17

Rhys can hardly sleep when he gets back. During breakfast, Vaughn keeps on talking about the trip, what Rhys should do and look out for, how he should approach the Vault Hunters. Rhys mumbles that Vaughn would probably be the one better suited for the trip, and Vaughn says that he’d _love_ to go, but Rhys needs another wingman back on Helios, and that Rhys is far better at convincing people than Vaughn is.

When it’s time to say goodbye, Vaughn gives Rhys the biggest bro-hug, which is always impressively strong for Vaughn’s size. “Be careful down there,” he asks earnestly. “Can’t share our fame and glory with anyone if you don’t return, and it’s only half as fun to show off my riches if you aren’t there to show off yours.”

“I’ll be back by tomorrow, no worries,” Rhys promises. “Don’t eat my pudding while I’m gone, you hear?”

“I’d never touch that stuff, it’s gross,” Vaughn claims.

“It’s delicious,” Rhys insists. “ _You_ just got bad taste.”

They smile at each other, in the nervous way friends smile at each other when they’re really worried, but want their best bro to feel okay. “I’ll bring you a souvenir,” Rhys says as he climbs into the car.

“Nothing that bites, I hope,” Vaughn replies.

Rhys just grins at him as the door closes, the container around the car sealing shut so Rhys can be shot down with the moon-canon.

He has never used the moon-canon before. It’s a smooth ride, but a hard and bumpy landing. The container around the car slides over the ground before finally opening, and Rhys hits the gas pedal to keep his car in motion. The engine roars hungrily as the car speeds away, quickly leaving the container behind.

It’s fast stuff, of course. He got the best pick, a hundred percent bulletproof, protected with a shock shield, guaranteed faster than any skag or bullymong can run. Rhys is confident he will make it to Junction Height in one piece with this thing. There’s nothing Pandora can throw at him as long as he is safe inside of this car.

He sends a signal to Vaughn, telling him that he landed safely, and smiles as his best friend sends him a reply. “Alright, Vault Hunters, here I come,” he says as he activates the car radio and hits the gas pedal harder. “Got a trunk full of loot and a really dumb hat. Let’s see if you can resist either of those things.”

It’s a long, dusty road to the Hyperion Outpost, flanked by nothing but wasteland and gentle slopes. Rakk circle above him as he drives, a geyser erupts in the distance every now and then, but other than that, there’s nothing around.

Mountains can be seen on the horizon, and the closer Rhys gets to them, the more grey and rocky his surroundings become. The minimap on the car’s monitor leads him to a twisting ascend, hewn into the foot of a mountain, and Rhys carefully drives up the narrow path until he reaches a closed gate wedged between two mountain flanks. Scanning his ID at the entrance is enough to open the gate and let him pass.

The Fast Travel station Jack talked about is seated at the outer wall of the Outpost. A Hyperion Engineer guides Rhys there, after having checked his credentials.

“Authorised by Jack himself, huh?” he asks as he looks at the clearance Rhys has given himself with Jack’s ID. “Got anything important to do in Redclay Canyon?”

“That’s highly confidential,” Rhys says, in the arrogant voice he hopes is appropriate. “Just take care of my car until I return.”

The Engineer stares at him. Rhys can’t see his expression underneath the helmet, but he gets the feeling that it’s not a friendly one.

“Alright then, have fun,” the Engineer says and activates the Fast Travel for Rhys. “Just a warning, the locals ain’t as nice as your kin.”

Yep, no, definitely not friendly. Rhys steps closer to the Fast Travel and looks at it. It’s been a long time since he last used one of these. Sure, there are some around on Helios, but the areas Rhys goes to hardly have any. If he remembers correctly, he gets horribly sick from using them for a moment. Maybe he should rather walk to Redclay Canyon from here…

“What now, scared of a good ol’ Fast Travel?” the Engineer teases. “You’d think Jack get tougher guys than this for such a highly confessional thing.”

“It’s ‘confidential’,” Rhys corrects lowly as he steps in front of the Fast Travel station. The last thing he sees before his atoms get sucked in is the Engineer giving him the finger.


	18. Chapter 18

Redclay Canyon is… adventurous. It’s a little town nestled into the walls of a canyon cutting through the mountains, spread over a couple of plateaus and tables. Clay the colour of bricks has given it its name, and the citizens have made good use of the natural resource with building their tools and houses. It’s not bandits that live here, just normal people and families; though Rhys wonders what ‘normal’ means when they are talking about Pandorans.

There’s something like a pub or a bar clinging to the side of a rock face, and Rhys decides to wait for the Vault Hunters in there. Maybe he can get something to eat or drink. He’s thirsty after that horrible Fast Travel.

The guests inside the tavern stare at him weird as he enters, but Rhys has to admit that he looks ridiculous. He has to remind himself that he is Clemombert O’Tierney now, and so he holds his nose a bit higher and sniffs. “Greetings, locals,” he twangs. “Can I get something decent to drink here?”

The person behind the bar scrutinises him thoroughly. “That depends,” they say, and put both hands down on the counter. “We have skag piss and dark beer. Which one do you consider ‘decent’?”

Some of the guests inside the tavern laugh. Rhys is so taken aback he can only stammer his response. “Uh, the beer,” he says in his normal voice, and, again, some of the people around him laugh. “Is there… is there anything to eat too that is not… skag?”

“Hardly,” the bartender says with a grin. “I can serve you some fries if that’s decent enough for you.”

“Fries are –” Rhys has to clear his throat to sound more composed again. “Fries are fine,” he says then. “I will be seated here, if that is alright with you.”

The bartender shrugs. “Don’t give a shit where you seat your ass,” they state. “As long as you pay for your decent meal, you can even have it outside if you want to.”

Rhys doesn’t want to, though he feels himself blush under the derisive glances of his fellow bar guests.

While he waits for his order, he posts his location to the ECHOs of the Vault Hunters. He got himself an ECHO device with a suppressed ID, so that no one can track him back to Hyperion. That the ECHO device itself is Hyperion-made, he can excuse with his role as the fan and collector.

When his meal arrives, the fries and the beer have about the same temperature. The beer is also strong and the fries taste heavily seasoned. Rhys nibbles and sips at both more as an excuse than out of want, but at least the other bar-goers lose their interest in him when they see he’s actually eating what he ordered.

Gaige is the first to arrive in the pub.

Even without her killer robot in tow, Rhys recognises her from her copper pigtails and the way she dresses. Someone who looks like this can only be a Vault Hunter, he assumes. It’s fascinating, really. She’s small and rather petite, but she radiates pure confidence, badassery, and… an immense portion of wit and fun.

When she spots Rhys, her face splits into a heart-warming grin, and she comes over to his table right away. “You must be Clemombert O’Tierney!” she exclaims as she pulls back a chair. “Oooo, are those _fries_? I _love_ fries!” Without asking, she pops one into her mouth and slumps into the chair, chewing. “Aaaaaw. _So_ good! Hey, can I get a lemonade, please? Thank you!”

The bartender doesn’t seem to mind _her_ way of ordering things, because they just nod without _any_ sort of comment. Rhys is still too starstruck to say anything, but Gaige seems too busy with her food anyway. “Maya should be around any minute,” she claims, stuffing her face with even more spicy fries. “Saw her entering the canyon from up here. Don’t know about Zer0, though, he likes to be fashionably late.”

Rhys hadn’t thought the Vault Hunters might know each other. But they all operate from Pandora, being in the same business, right? Maybe it makes sense for them to be aware of one another like that.

Gaige takes a big slurp from her lemonade and makes a content sound. “So good,” she repeats lowly, then resumes digging into Rhys’ fries.

Rhys is unsure what to say to her. He doesn’t want to screw this up, but he also doesn’t want her to lose interest. Luckily, the door opens once again before he can utter more than an, “Uh…” and a tall, slender woman with blue hair enters the tavern.

“Mayaaaa!” Gaige exclaims and waves her over happily. “Hey, girl! Aw, so good to see you! Come heeere!” She gets up from her chair and locks the Siren in a tight, enthusiastic hug. Maya just smiles, which seems to be her own way of showing happiness.

“Hey, Kiddo, good to see you too,” she says.

Rhys suddenly feels so out of place here, amongst those two Vault Hunters who not only know each other, but seem to be some sort of friends. Rhys expected some hard-boiled professionals, snarling through their teeth, playing around with their guns all the time. But these two are so… _normal_ almost, so warm and open with each other. Somehow, that makes dealing with them even harder for Rhys, especially in his role, that suddenly seems very silly to him.

“Finally, you’re here,” an ominous voice says from behind Rhys, and he jumps with a little squeak of terror. “I have been waiting for you | Who is late now, Gaige?”

“Zer0000!” Gaige cheers, high-pitched, and holds out her hand invitingly for a bro-fist. “Of _course_ you waited for a dramatic reveal, you little show-off!”

“If you are gifted,” Zer0 says and gives Gaige what looks like a personal fist-bump sequence, “you ought to make use of it | It’s more fun this way.”

“Show! Off!” Gaige repeats with a giggle and makes an explosion sound at the end of their fist-bump greeting. An **:D** flashes up on Zer0’s helmet. Then he averts his attention to Maya, and they exchange a friendly nod, in Maya’s case accompanied by a smile. Rhys feels like he isn’t even present, and at the same time, feels extremely in the way.

Gaige flops back down on her chair, and Maya draws one back for herself as well. Zer0 seats himself right next to Rhys, and Rhys feels his ears flush a bright, hurtful red. You would think after having talked to _Handsome Jack_ , his biggest hero of _all times_ , you couldn’t get him nervous again in the presence of somebody awesome. Well, you would have been wrong at that. Sitting at a table with those Vault Hunters is far more impressive than it was in his head.

“So, you must me Clemombert O’Tierney,” Maya repeats Gaige’s exact words from earlier. When Gaige offers her Rhys’ fries, she takes one and bites off one half of it. “If I understand it correctly, you want us to open up a Vault for you.”

“Uh, yes,” Rhys says automatically, before he remembers he should be playing a role. He clears his throat and sits up straight, then adds in a more steady voice, “Yes, indeed, that is what I ask of you.”

“A Vault is not rare,” Zer0 states, “but it’s hard to know of one | How did you find it?”

“I, uh, heard of it,” Rhys says. “Somebody sent me the coordinates, and after some research on my own, I can confirm that there is indeed a Vault there.”

“What’s your interest in the Vault?” Maya keeps on asking.

“Well, I am a collector,” Rhys explains, slowly finding his way into his role. “More precisely, I am a collector of rare Hyperion gear and equipment. I want you to find and open the Vault, and as soon as you have, I want you to let me have a look at the Hyperion loot inside. If there’s something worth to be added to my collection, I will claim it. The rest of the loot will, of course, be for you.”

“Hyperion sucks,” Gaige comments, her mouth full of fries.

“Hyperion loot is hardly worth opening a Vault for,” Maya agrees. “You can just buy that crap from the company itself.”

“That would be considered cheating,” Rhys says, proud of his own brain for coming up with something like this so quickly. “All of my collection has been acquired through looting. And I think you know for yourself how painful it can be to try and get a hold of a special piece of quality gear this way.”

“Aw man, yeah,” Gaige confirms. “Hey, can we get some more fries here, thank you!”

“So you will pay us loads of money so that we’ll open this Vault for you,” Maya makes sure, “and then you will grab all the Hyperion stuff you want for yourself before granting us to have our pick at the rest of the available loot.”

“Uh, yes, you could sum it up like that,” Rhys agrees.

“How much payment are we talking about?” Maya asks.

Rhys has just opened his mouth to answer as the door to the tavern blows open once more, and a wave of cold air fills the room, making him shiver. Everyone turns their head towards the entrance, and only because he sits right next to him does Rhys notice the ever so subtle movement with which Zer0 gets ready to draw out his sword.

A woman steps into the bar room. She’s clad in high-end fashion, white and blue and brown and grey, her dark hair perfectly coiffed, one strand falling into her sharp-cut face. Ice crystals float around her before tumbling to the ground, like dancers heralding her entrance. If anyone can challenge Jack for dramatic flair, it’s probably her. Rhys knows her face from the ECHO call they’ve had.

“Ooooh my God, this is Hammerlock’s _sister_ ,” Gaige whispers. “He told me about her. Apparently she’s a total –”

“Ah, there you are,” Aurelia warbles. She strides over to their table, confidence oozing off of her with every step. “Be a darling and fix me a drink, dear,” she says towards the bartender before she stops behind Maya and leans against the side of her backrest leisurely. “Am I late? If so, I am terribly sorry.”

“Not at all,” Rhys assures her. “We were just talking about financials.”

“Ah, then I’m just on time!” she exclaims.

“Is she on our team?” Maya asks, sounding a bit reproachful.

“Indeed I am!” Aurelia answers, as if the question was directed at her. “I was Rhys’ first pick, to be precise. Isn’t that right, Sweetheart?”

“Rhys?” Gaige asks.

“Uh, yeah,” Rhys says, suddenly blushing again. Damn, he should have informed Aurelia about how to address him in front of the others… “That’s… that’s my full name. Rhys Clemombert O’Tierney. I just don’t like my first name all that much.”

“Sounds fake,” Maya states.

“It doesn’t,” Rhys defends himself.

“It indeed does, yes,” Zer0 throws in. “Nobody is named like that | I call bullshit here.”

“Excuse you, _you_ are called ‘Zer0’!” Rhys exclaims. “My name is perfectly valid, thank you very much!”

“Oh, what do we care about names here,” Aurelia interrupts their debate, and Rhys wants to climb underneath the table to kiss her boots for that. “As long as he can pay me, he can be called Baron Fatass the Third if he wants to. Which, actually, I should call one of my pets like that.”

“I don’t know, it’s preeeeetty suspicious,” Gaige notes, making Rhys’ heart sink again.

But Aurelia stays persistent. She finally seats herself on one of the remaining chairs and grabs the drink from the bartender who just came to their table to deliver it. “Well, no one is forcing you to take on the mission,” she says. “But _I_ want to at least hear what the payment is going to be like. So go on, Mr O’Tierney. Enlighten us, please.”

“Uh, the payment,” Rhys picks up and clears his throat. If he just asks them what they want now, they could grow even more suspicious. He has to avoid that at all costs, so he clears his throat again and decides to just throw out an offer. If they don’t like it, they’ll be sure to bargain with him anyway, no doubt. “I’ll pay a million dollars to each of you for finding and opening that Vault,” he says, happy that his voice sounds firm. “And for letting me have first pick at the Hyperion gear inside, of course. I will also equip you with high-quality Hyperion loot that I happen to own multiple or better exemplars of, to ensure the success of your mission. I think that is a very fair –”

“Two million,” Maya interrupts before he’s even done.

“That’s twice as much as I just offered you!” Rhys exclaims in outrage.

“You look like you can handle it, _Rhys_ ,” she insists. The tattoos on her pale skin are shimmering a beautiful shade of blue. Rhys doesn’t want to know what powers slumber underneath that surface…

“Two million,” he says, “is still too much. If you don’t _trust_ me, I don’t think money could buy –”

“Three million,” Maya talks over him, raising one eyebrow.

“Don’t you think that maybe one point five –”

“Why don’t we make it a nice round five million for everybody?” Aurelia asks. Rhys glare-pouts at her. How _dare_ she be so mean to him again! She was supposed to help him out here!

“I really like the sound of that,” Maya nods. “What do you think, Zer0?”

“I’m offering you _loot_ with it!” Rhys tries desperately. “Legendary Hyperion stuff! _And_ you get a pick at everything inside the Vault except for –”

“I think five sounds good,” Zer0 says.

Rhys’ face hurt from how hard he is glare-pouting by now. “You’re horrible business partners,” he states. Jack said he could give them all they wanted – that is not the problem, Hyperion definitely has that much money. It’s the principle, okay? If someone offers you one million dollars, you don’t simply up it to five!

“Fine,” he grumbles. “Five million dollars for each of you, _and_ the loot I brought to equip you. Though I think it’s very unfair I should be treated like that because you guys don’t seem to like my name.”

“I don’t like your hat, either,” Maya comments.

Rhys is close to actually throwing it at her face for a response to that. Instead, he gets out his ECHO and messages Vaughn, telling him that he needs twenty million dollars because Vault Hunters are, apparently, assholes. The response is almost immediate.

“Okay, here you go,” he says as he transfers the money to each of their ECHO accounts. “Can we please all calm down now and become friends again? I’ll invite you to lunch. Though, uh, I don’t know if we’ll get anything decent here.”

“What do you mean, these fries are _delish_!” Gaige exclaims. “Also, sorry, dude, but your name _is_ stupid. If you’re making up fake names, go with something cooler than that.”

Rhys glare-pouts once again. “I like Clemombert,” he mumbles, offended. “You guys just don’t have any taste.”

“For five million dollars, I don’t care what your name is,” Maya says. “Still doesn’t mean that I trust you, though. You mentioned some loot? Where is it?”

“Right here,” Rhys says and pats his digistructer. “We might want to go outside for this one, though. I don’t know if you want to try them out.”

“Sure do!” Gaige cheers. “Do you got stuff with shock damage on it? Me and Deathtrap looooove a good shock damage weapon or shield!”

Rhys smirks slightly. “I got everything your heart desires,” he promises. “So why don’t we take a trip outside? Then I can show you all the goodies that I brought you.”


	19. Chapter 19

If Rhys was impressed with the Vault Hunters earlier, he’s in absolute fanboy mode half an hour later.

They climbed to the highest plain of the canyon, where the town of Redclay has already ended. Rhys digistructed all of his presents for them, and he puffed up with pride at the excitement in their faces. Especially Gaige couldn’t hold back her joy.

“Aw, a _Conference Call_ ,” she cried. “I aaaaaaaalways wanted a _Conference Call_! Oh my God, and is that a shock elemental ricochet _Fibber_?!”

“Told you you would love it,” Rhys stated triumphantly.

The others showed a little lower form of enthusiasm than Gaige. Zer0 grabbed one of the _Morningstars_ first, as did Aurelia, commenting on Hyperion’s poor design choices. Maya grabbed both of the _Bitches_ at once, scrutinising them thoroughly. When the first of them started firing at the skags down below on the canyon ground, Rhys jumped in shock at the loud echo of the shot.

None of the skags stood a chance against their fire. Neither did the rakks who thought they might join in. Rhys watched in awe, completely mesmerized by Zer0 placing critical after critical with his sniper rifle, Maya phaselocking her enemies before sieving them with bullets, Aurelia sending out ice crystals to freeze her enemies solid, and Gaige letting lose an entire flood of bullets, laughing as they bounced off the walls of the canyon to hit their targets from different directions.

When the last dead rakk hits the ground of the canyon and the last echo of the bullets fades away, Rhys wants to ask all of them for their autographs.

“That… was… amazing…” he stammers, staring at the sea of bodies far below them. “I-I.. that was… simply… amazing, so freaking amazing, oh my God. Are you… Will you… Oh my God, I am such a fan of yours now, you’re so cool.”

“Eh, the weapons are alright,” Maya says, completely unimpressed. “Think with the _Bee_ shields on, we can make some good use of them.”

“Agreed,” Zer0 says, flashing an emoji on his visor.

“Why is there no _Ladyfist_ , though?” Gaige complains. “Love the name of it alone.”

“A, uh… what?” Rhys asks, blinking confused.

“A Ladyfist gun,” Zer0 explains. “It has a high crit bonus | Thought you would know that.”

“Oh, I do, of course, I do!” Rhys hurries to say. “I mean, I’m a collector of Hyperion loot, of course I know. Hehe. I _know_. Just didn’t, uh. Didn’t have one lying around to hand it out for using. Very good stuff, such a _Ladyfist_ , right? Couldn’t… just… Anyway. Uh. You’re all, uh… ready to go now? Yeah?”

“The coordinates, darling,” Aurelia reminds him. “You said you had the coordinates of the Vault. Would you kindly transfer them to our ECHOs.”

“Oh, right, the, uh, right,” Rhys stutters. He gets out his ECHO device and loads them.

“Huh, that’s pretty far away,” Maya comments. “Can’t just get there via Fast Travel stations. Or has any of you unlocked this area?”

“Nope,” Gaige says, shaking her head. The _Conference Call_ is already strapped to her back, almost as tall as she is herself. “Good thing Axton isn’t here, then he can’t do the driving. Remember –” She giggles and slaps the back of her hand against Maya’s arm. “Remember when he accidentally hit the boost and slammed against that pillar and then the car just _flew_ through the air and turned, and he was screaming so loud the rakk got scared? That was soooo funny, hahaha! He’s the worst driver, I don’t know how he made it through the Dahl military!”

“Sometimes _I_ don’t know why I still date him,” Maya sighs, but she is grinning.

“I will drive us there,” Zer0 offers.

“Nooooo!” Gaige howls. “You’re almost worse than Axton! I’ll drive!”

“Darling, maybe you should let _me_ drive,” Aurelia states. “I’m remotely concerned for my life if any of _you_ will do the driving.”

Their banter continues like this, often talking over each other. Where should they even drive first? Two cars or one car? Make a Fast Travel jump to Boldershack before the hop into a car? Gaige wants to buy ammunition before they go. And snacks. Because she gets grumpy on car rides when she can’t nibble something.

Rhys, once again, feels totally excluded.

His own plan of travel looks quite simple compared to the Vault Hunters’: There’s no way to travel back to Helios just like that, because it’s too far away for the Fast Travel stations from here. Jack did, however, install a line of Fast Travel stations on something he calls _Boomboxes_ for whatever reason; little chunks of rock fixed on an orbit, almost similar to meteors just that they don’t tumble around in space aimlessly. They are aligned so that you can hop from Boombox Fast Travel to Boombox Fast Travel until you’re close enough to enter Helios from them – provided, of course, that you have the required clearance to use them. Naturally, Rhys gave himself the clearance to use them. He’s not looking forward to hopping around between them, though.

The only problem is that even with clearance, you don’t have access to this Line to Helios from every random Fast Travel station on Pandora. Only the Fast Travel stations in secured Hyperion areas even have access to the Boombox hops, so that no bandit who maybe managed to kidnap someone with clearance can just use the route that easily. The nearest Hyperion outpost is, of course, the one where Rhys has parked his car. He’s not looking forward to returning to that snotty Engineer with the intellect of a tree trunk, either…

“Okay, uh. I’ll go, then,” he says, not even sure that anyone is listening to him. “Just, just message me when you find that Vault. I… will… be off, then.”

Nobody seems to have heard what he has said. Rhys sighs and shakes his head, turning around to head to the Fast Travel station. He’s sure Jack wants to know everything about his meeting with the Vault Hunters. As soon as he’s back on Helios, he will – “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH-HA-HA! Oh God, what is happening?! Guys! GUYS! I COULD USE SOME HELP HERE!”

The others, suddenly all standing on their heads, seem far less impressed than Rhys is currently.

“Oh, I hate threshers,” Maya comments as she whips out her _Bitch_. “Too many tentacles, horrible crit spots.”

“Tastes good as sushi, though,” Gaige chimes in.

“Guys, it wants to EAT ME!” Rhys screams, dangling from a giant tentacle. “Maybe you can DO something first, and talk sushi recipes late-- OOOOOH MY GOD, PUT ME DOWN, PUT ME DOOOOWN! I HAVE A PROBLEM WITH HEIGHTS! A SERIOUS PROBLEM!”

“Stop moving so much,” Zer0 orders from the ground.

“IT’S NOT LIKE I CAN CONTROL THAT!” Rhys snaps. The giant tentacle waves him about like a child’s toy. The thing it belongs to is _huge_ , and, apparently, not afraid of a team of Vault Hunters.

All of them have a gun in their hands now, and Gaige has summoned Deathtrap to her side. The robot hums as it flies forward, its claws whipping through the air to attack a tentacle. Rhys screams as he is thrown around like a worm on a fishing rod, and prays that the tentacle won’t fling him off the cliff.

Gunshots start ringing through the air, the fast _ratatatatat_ of SMGs, the slow _pew, pew_ of Sniper Rifles, the loud _blang! blang! blang!_ of Shotguns. The thresher gives guttural roars and uses its tentacles like giant fly swats, often forcing the Vault Hunters to jump back.

“I’ll take this one over there!” he hears Gaige shout as everything turns into a blur of chaos. And Aurelia curses, “Oh, hold _still_ you giant fool, how am I supposed to _freeze_ you!”

Noises fly by, pictures, he gets nauseous. Just as Rhys has decided to throw up now, Zer0 appears in his field of vision and slices through the tentacle that’s holding Rhys up with his katana. Rhys screams as he falls, but something catches him, something like a bubble of purple light. This has to be Maya’s famous phaselock. Rhys decides to postpone his throwing up until he is no longer stuck in this confinement.

He can watch now as the Vault Hunters shoot at the giant monster, one from every side, Deathtrap slicing along between them. The thresher, well, threshes at them and shoots spikes out of its tentacles, but the Vault Hunters are far too quick for it. Sometimes, he can hear the electric _whoosh_ of a shield running out, sometimes, they even take a hit or two. But they are too many, and when one of them needs a moment of breath, the others are there to back them up.

When the phaselock ends and Rhys falls to the ground, the thresher falls a moment later. Rhys has just enough time to crawl out of the hazard zone before he gets crushed underneath its giant body. He stares at it with wide eyes, breathing hard. The Vault Hunters are already picking up loot while Rhys is still trying to catch his breath.

“Eh, nothing useful, except for some health vials,” Gaige announces. “ _Always_ amazed at what those things will swallow. Maya, look, here’s a healing relic!”

“I’m covered,” Maya says. “This your Fast Travel access card, Rhys?”

Wobbly like a new-born fawn, Rhys gets up to his legs and staggers over. He feels nauseous and weak in his knees, and he still hasn’t forsaken his plan of throwing up entirely. He slowly nears Maya, staring down at the access device in front of her.

“Yeah, that’s mine,” he mumbles numbly.

“Well, that thing is totally broken,” Maya says. “Hope you don’t get carsick on the backseat.”


	20. Chapter 20

Since they’re now five people, they decide on taking two cars for their first stage. Rhys is grumbling in the back of one of them, talking to Vaughn on his ECHO device.

“What do you mean, unfixable?” he asks. Over the sound of the engine and the wheels crackling over the rocky road, Rhys can hardly understand his best friend. “How can this not be fixable, Vaughn?”

“Well, the card is ruined,” Vaughn says, sounding defensive. “I can’t just heal it back up from here, bro. It’s gone.”

“Yeah, I got that,” Rhys states angrily. “But why can’t you just issue me a new one?”

“Well, I’m on it, bro, but it’s gonna take a little while.”

“Great,” Rhys growls. “How long does ‘a little while’ mean in this case?”

“I don’t know, at least a few hours,” Vaughn replies. “And then you’ll have to pick it up at a Hyperion outpost, so –”

“Wait, pick it up?” Rhys asks. “Why do I have to pick it up? You got my coordinates, you can send it to me.”

“I can’t,” Vaughn explains. “Those cards get issued up here, but when they’re needed down on Pandora, they will be digistructed in the nearest Hyperion Ground Base. You’ll have to pick it up directly from there, in person, since they’ll check your identity before they give it to you. With that high of a clearance on it, they won’t just hand it to anybody.”

“Oh, that’s just wonderful,” Rhys hisses. “I changed my mind, send me a rocket down here that will pick me up, I’m not a big fan of Fast Travels anyway.”

“That would take even longer, trust me,” Vaughn says. “Where are you headed? Which Hyperion base should I order it to?”

“I don’t know yet,” Rhys sighs. “We’re on the way to the Vault now, but I have no idea which route they’re taking exactly. Just keep an eye on my coordinates.”

“Will do,” Vaughn replies. “I’ll let you know when it’s done, bro. Hang in there for now, it won’t take too long.”

“Thanks, Vaughn,” Rhys says, and he means it. He _is_ thankful to his very best bro. But right now, he doesn’t feel much better from it.

“Well, seems like you’re having some troubles, darling,” Aurelia comments from her spot across from Rhys. The car they’re driving in only has the drivers cabin and an open area for passengers and cargo in the back. Since Zer0 is driving, Rhys and Aurelia share the open area outside.

“Yeah, well,” Rhys grunts and crosses his arms on top of his pulled-up knees. “Things could definitely have gone better.”

“Believe me, dear, they could have gone a lot worse, too,” Aurelia assures him. “You’re still alive, and the others agreed to take you with them. They could have left you in that… yes, let’s call it a ‘village’, shall we. For someone they don’t trust, you get treated pretty well by them. Well, they probably just want to keep an eye on you, but still. I would have asked you to pay me for saving your life back there.”

“Gee, thanks,” Rhys mutters with a little glare-pout. His mood is not the best right now. But Aurelia is right, at least he’s still alive or something.

“You should be thankful, actually,” Aurelia goes on. “Get yourself a good gun and join our party. Become a Vault Hunter, enjoy the excitement instead of being stuck on that space prison day in and day out.”

“What, and be eaten by skags and shot at by bandits?” Rhys asks sceptically.

“You’re with us, sweetheart,” Aurelia states. “We will make sure you won’t snuff it on the way. Aren’t you curious? A little excited? This is so much more fun than Helios!”

“I don’t know, being alive sounds pretty exciting, too,” Rhys says.

“Oh, you’re _surviving_ , but you’re not _alive_ ,” Aurelia claims with a knowing little smirk. “There’s never going to be a better chance for adventure, darling. Grab it. Before it’s too late, and you will never know what it is like to live.”


	21. Chapter 21

“Take this,” Maya says as she shoves a pistol and a pack of bullets into Rhys’ hands. “Not my best, but it should be enough for you. High accuracy, low reload time, high fire rate, good enough damage count. Zer0 has a good shield for you as well.”

“Is… is that really necessary?” Rhys asks as he stares at the weapon inside of his hand. “I mean, do you really think I’ll have to shoot stuff?”

“This is Pandora,” Maya remarks. “You _always_ have to shoot stuff on Pandora.”

“R-right,” Rhys stammers. He has never shot a gun before in his life. Which is funny, considering he works for a weapon manufacturer.

“Do you know how to handle this?” Maya asks, probably noticing Rhys’ lost gaze. “If not, I’m sure Gaige is more than happy to show you.”

Rhys looks over at the young woman who’s currently telling a joke to her robot friend. “Yeah, I’ll consider it,” he mumbles. “Thanks.”

Maya just nods and heads off to their campfire. They’ve driven all day, but now they will wait here until it is morning. They’ll have to climb for a bit, and it’s easier to do that when it’s light.

Rhys looks back at the gun in his hand and runs his thumb over the body and the barrel. It’s a Tediore. Maya probably didn’t trust him putting bullets into a magazine.

He sighs and pockets bullets and pistol inside of his digistructer unit. He imploringly hopes that he won’t need any of those. He hopes that by tomorrow, he will have his Fast Travel access card back.

He gets out his ECHO device and looks at Vaughn’s message again. It arrived half an hour ago, shortly before they stopped here to set up their camp. _Access card ready_ , it reads. _Nearest Ground Base at Droprock Valley. Wait at Sinderpoint Point, will send Hyperion personnel to pick you up._

Droprock Valley with the little town of Sinderpoint Point is on the other side of the mountain range. There’s a pass they’ll use tomorrow, most likely a popular ambush point for bandits. But there’s no other Hyperion outpost close by. All Rhys could do is steal one of the cars and drive to another Ground Base further away. But he feels safer spending the night with the Vault Hunters than driving through the darkness in that Pandoran rustbucket over there.

Zer0 returns with a dead skag over his shoulder and drops it to the ground next to the campfire. “Dinner has arrived,” he says. “I hope that you are hungry | He is very fat.”

Rhys wrinkles his nose in open disgust. He’s eaten skag, it’s actually tasty. But to see the dead animal and _smell_ it, not to mention? And he doesn’t even want to imagine how it –

“Hey, Clem,” Maya calls over. “Make yourself useful and gut the dinner.”

Yep. No. That’s exactly what he didn’t want to imagine.

“My name is Rhys,” he grumbles as he gets up from his spot. He can’t really say no, given that the Vault Hunters protect him and offer him safe travel. But he hates them anyways for letting him do this.

“Oh?” Gaige asks, grinning widely. “I thought your name was _Clemombert_ , mon frêre.”

Aurelia gives a delighted giggle. “Exquisite use of French to mock someone! I like it!” she exclaims.

Rhys glare-pouts and grabs the kunai Zer0’s holding out to him. “It’s… Listen, _Clem_ just sounds really stupid, okay?” he says. “Let’s just agree that _Rhys_ is a better name than that.”

“Better than _Clemombert_ for sure,” Maya claims.

“How about we call him _Berty_?” Gaige suggests.

“No. Let’s just. Call me Rhys. Thank you,” Rhys grumbles as he cowers down in front of the skag body. He has never gutted an animal before. He can barely manage to make a toast Hawaii, let alone cut open a skag carcass and rip out all of its internal organs. The disgust still visible on his features, he drives the kunai into the skag’s chest and drags it down its lifeless body.

“Oh. Oh _God_ ,” he groans. “Oh God, this… smells really bad. Hrgmph. Can… somebody… Oh, for Heaven’s sake, this is disgusting!”

The others just laugh at him, of course. With lots of cursing, whining, and far more stinking fluids oozing over his hands than any human being should have to deal with in their lifetime, Rhys manages to cut the skag open top to bottom. What lies inside is not really a reward. He has no idea what all these organs even _are_ , but he does his best to cut them out without having even more disgusting substances finding their way somewhere onto his body.

When he’s done, he has to wash his hands four times before he feels like he can touch things with them again.

He sinks down onto the ground between Gaige and Zer0. The Mechromancer hands him a stick with a piece of skag pinned onto it that Rhys holds into the crackling flames in front of him. Pandora gets cold when the sun is down. Rhys is very tired, and he wishes he could cuddle into his bed.

“So,” Maya says from across the campfire. “That Vault you want us to find. Tell us more about it.”

“Uh,” Rhys mumbles. “I don’t really know much more about it than I already told you. The coordinates, that it has a Vault Monster inside. That it’s hopefully full of Hyperion loot.”

“What about the Vault Key?” Maya asks. “Do you know where it is? Or is the Vault already open?”

Rhys blinks and looks up from his sizzling skag meat. “V-vault… Key?” he asks. “I… I don’t know of any Vault Key. I mean… I know Vaults _do_ have a Vault Key, but I don’t know if this one –”

“Why was I sure you would say something like that,” Maya sighs.

“So we’ll have to find this Vault Key on our own?” Gaige asks.

“Maybe Rhys can find out more information for us,” Aurelia suggests and she gives Rhys a very telling look. _Maybe you can ask Jack about it_ , it means.

Rhys is sure Jack would have told him already if he knew anything about the Vault Key. But who knows what information Jack is actually keeping from Rhys because of whatever reason he might deem necessary. So Rhys just shrugs and mutters, “Yeah, sure, I’ll ask my informant next time that we speak.” Next time Jack decides to get in contact. Rhys needs to hack his ECHO device so he can trace back Jack’s signal and will be able to call him on his own.

“That would be very helpful if you want us to open that thing for you,” Maya states. On the ‘We like Rhys’-ranking list of the Vault Hunters, she’s definitely posted on the lowest position. Rhys can’t even blame her, because he’s angry at Jack for not mentioning a Vault Key earlier to him as well.

“I know,” he says. “I’ll do my best to get some information for you. Though for a five million dollar fee each, I think finding the Vault Key is included in the price.”

Maya glares at him. Both Gaige and Aurelia burst out laughing. “He’s so cute!” Gaige giggles. “Haaah. Oh man, can’t wait ‘til he has to kill his first bandit and shoots himself in the foot instead!”

“Thanks,” Rhys grumbles. He _can_ wait for that. But no matter how much the Vault Hunters tease him – as the fire burns low and he hears the sounds of Pandora howling and rustling and shrieking in the distance, he is very glad that he’s not alone here.


	22. Chapter 22

Jack calls early in the morning.

Rhys barely registers what is going on, just jerks awake as he hears the voice yodelling, “Heeeey, Kiddo! Wakey wakey, time to shine!”

It’s barely light, nothing but a soft glow illuminating the horizon. Rhys rubs his eyes and groans lowly at how heavy his bones and how dizzy his head feel. “Don’t you ever sleep,” he grumbles lowly.

“Nope,” Jack says, sounding far too awake and joyful for Rhys’ taste. “A hero is ever vigilant! So! How did things go with the Vault Hunters yesterday?”

“Fantastic,” Rhys mutters. It’s still cold. He lies back down and wraps his jacket around himself tightly. “They’re on their way, wanting five million each. You can thank Aurelia for that.”

Jack laughs. “Ah, that’s my girl,” he sighs. “Always ready to screw you head over heels for money. No complications then?”

“Oh, I wouldn’t call it that,” Rhys growls.

“What was that? You gotta speak up, Kitten, I can barely hear you.”

“I said, ‘I wouldn’t call it that,’” Rhys snaps. “And I can’t speak up, we’re not alone right now.”

“Oh?” Jack asks, teasing in his voice. “Who’s with you? Celebrating with some girls as soon as you came back to Helios?”

“No,” Rhys says angrily.

“Boys?”

“No, Jack! I’m not back on Helios! I am stuck! On Pandora! I am with the Vault Hunters right now! And if they hear me, they will probably shoot me and leave me as a breakfast for the skags!”

“That sounds far less fun than celebrating back on Helios,” Jack states. “Why in all the Six Galaxies would you do that?”

“It’s not like I chose it!” Rhys hisses. “My Fast Travel access card broke! I gotta get a new one at the base in Droprock Valley today!”

“Huh,” Jack makes, completely unimpressed. “That sucks. So, the Vault Hunters –”

“The Vault Hunters,” Rhys interrupts him. He’s far too upset for ass-o’clock in the morning, “want to know about the Vault Key, Jack. Don’t you think you maybe left that detail _out_ when you told me about this mission?”

“Uh, not really, no,” Jack says. Rhys gets so angry at how careless and guilt-free his voice sounds. “I don’t know where the Vault Key is. The Vault Hunters will have to find out for themselves. That’s what we hired them for, after all.”

“Well, how about you do some _research_ ,” Rhys grunts. “Then maybe we could get you out of that Vault you’re stuck in _faster_.”

“You’re not a morning person, are you?” Jack asks. And then his tone finally turns serious. “Listen, Pumpkin, I already told you how I ended up in this mess here. I have no clue what happened, I just got teleported into this suckhole. You got four of the best Vault Hunters in the business at your disposal; if they want to find a Vault Key, they’ll find it. Pay them more money if you have to, I don’t care. All I care about is getting _out_ of here, alright? I told you everything that I know, don’t you think that’s to my own advantage?”

“Oh, I don’t know, Jack,” Rhys says sarcastically. “Do you think it’s to your own advantage to treat my head like a communication center? To leave me hanging every time that we talk? To never let _me_ contact _you_ when I need it?”

“I am –”

“You’re a dick, Jack,” Rhys states. “I’m trying to _help_ you, and you treat me like a Claptrap unit.”

He just wants to go back to sleep. No, go back to Helios and _then_ go back to sleep. In his warm, cosy bed instead of the ground of a border planet.

Jack is quiet for a moment. Then he says, “You’re right, Kiddo. I’m sorry I wasn’t very nice to you. It’s just, you know…” He chuckles mirthlessly. “I’m pretty stressed out over here. Pretty panicked. I just want to get back home, and you’re the only person who can help me with that. I really should have treated you better.”

“Yeah, you should have,” Rhys mumbles into the crook of his arm. He’s so tired. Still angry at Jack, but mostly just tired.

“I’ll leave you my contacts and see if I can find any info about the Vault Key,” Jack promises.

“Good.”

“Go back to sleep now, Princess.”

“I will.”

“And Rhysie?”

“Yeah?”

“Don’t trust any of the Vault Hunters too much. They’re dangerous people.”


	23. Chapter 23

Skag for breakfast is not his favourite. Especially not after Maya kicked him awake.

None of the Vault Hunters seems too troubled by having to sleep on the ground; Gaige is yawning once, but nobody complains or looks as tired as Rhys feels. As far as he knows, Zer0 stayed awake all night to keep watch. Whoever or whatever he is, he doesn’t seem to need much sleep.

“I talked to my informant,” Rhys says while he slurps some water out of a tin cup. “He doesn’t know anything about the Vault Key yet, but he said he’ll try and do some research.”

“Excellent,” Aurelia says. “Let’s hope he is at all capable at what he’s doing.” Another dig at Jack. Rhys wishes Hyperion’s CEO could hear it.

“We’ll stay on our path,” Zer0 comments. “We will check out the Vault first | We might find a clue.”

“I can call Axton,” Maya offers. “Tell him to ask around in Sanctuary. Lilith and the others might know something, or know _someone_ who might know something.”

“He sent me a meme the other night,” Gaige throws in, and then she snorts. “It was _so_ funny.”

Maya shakes her head with a fond smile. “Better you than me,” she says, before she turns serious again. “As soon as we dropped Rhysbert off at Sinderpoint Point, we should stock up on supplies and then continue to the Scraplands. I think we’ll need corrosive weapons a lot there, so just in case, stock up on those too.”

“I’m still using the _Teapot_ Tina gave me,” Gaige remarks. “It’s a bit outdated, but it rocks my world _so haaaard._ ”

Rhys didn’t include any corrosives in their loot gifts. He once heard people from Robotics complain about corrosive weapons obliterating their creations. He hadn’t considered there could be other armoured targets beside Hyperion robots that any Vault Hunter would like to get rid of.

“How long will it take us to reach Sinderpoint Point?” he asks. He’s not looking forward to climbing up that pass. It looks really steep, and not at all friendly.

“That depends,” Maya says. “On how many bandits will try to ambush us.”

“And the weather,” Gaige adds, as if those two things somehow exist on the same level of awful. “Never forget the weather. Could always be raining, and that would be _ugh_.”

“If I had to guess,” Zer0 adds, “I’d assume six to eight hours | If things turn out well.”

Rhys nods. Eight hours and a lengthy march, probably accompanied by some bandits’ bullets. But after that, he should finally be home.

When they pack their things, he checks his weapon and shield again. Zer0 gave it to him after dinner, just clipped it to Rhys’ belt without a word. It hums ever so lowly, Rhys noticed while he tried to fall asleep. He doesn’t really feel safer with it, but at least he shouldn’t be killed by only one blow now.

“You ready?” Gaige asks, a big grin on her features. “If you grow tired, I’ll let Deathtrap carry you.”

“Thank you, yeah, I’m ready,” Rhys claims, putting the gun back in his digistruct unit. The mountain looms a short distance away, the entry to the pass is reachable within ten minutes. “It’s just a walk,” he adds, more to himself than to anyone around him. “How hard can a simple walk like that be?”


	24. Chapter 24

He wants to revoke that statement when the first bandit ambush actually happens.

Maybe a bit before that, even.

He is just drinking some water, just trying to get his feet to stop complaining that _these_ boots were _not_ made for walking, or at least not for hiking up a mountain pass, when Maya’s call alerts them all.

“Bandits!” she yells from a few feet ahead. “It’s a bunch of them! Including some nomads!”

“Hell yeah!” Gaige cheers and hops off the big boulder she and Rhys were using as their break-chilling-spot. “That came faster than I expected!”

“Ooooh, no,” Rhys groans, and then screams as the first bullet almost hits him. He covers his head and slides to the ground, pressing himself against the big rock. “I knew this would happen, but I still don’t like it!”

“Get out your pistol!” Gaige orders as she summons Deathtrap and gets out her _Conference Call_. “Break’s over, you’re missing all the fun!”

“I’ll gladly miss out on this one!” Rhys says.

The others gather in front of him, shooting at the oncoming bandits that Rhys can’t really see from down here. He’s the first one to see the bandits that are coming up to them from the other side of the path, though.

“It’s a trap!” he screams. “They’re doing a pincer movement! Watch out!”

The first bandit raises his pistol to shoot at Rhys. A purple orb closes around him before he can pull the trigger, though, and raises him off of his feet into the air. “Get out your pistol!” Maya shouts. “Why is your pistol not yet in your hand!”

“I was kind of busy noticing their attack from behind us!” Rhys replies. He gets the pistol out and almost drops it. When he tries to get up, someone immediately shoots into his shield.

“Stay _down_ , Rhysbert!” Maya orders. “Shoot at their heads, that’s their weak spot!”

“It’s _Rhys_!” Rhys corrects her. “And how do I shoot at their heads from down here!” He tries it, aims with his pistol and fires a shot. He misses terribly. He’s not used to the feeling of this thing in his palm.

“Just _shoot_!” Maya snaps while she mows down some bandits.

“Easy for _you_ to talk,” Rhys grumbles and tries to aim his gun again. This time, he at least manages to hit the nearing bandit in the chest.

He gets a bit more confident at that, keeps on firing, just holds the trigger down. Of course, his ECHO eye flashes an ‘out of ammo’-warning the exact second one of the nomads has noticed him lying there.

“I’m out of bullets!” he yells in panic.

“Just throw the gun!” Maya yells back. “It’s a Tediore! It reloads automatically!”

“How does that even work!” Rhys shouts and flings the gun in the general direction of the nomad. It hits the bandit’s foot and explodes there, making him curse.

“No idea! What do I care! Just keep firing and throwing your gun!”

Okay then, Rhys can do that. He dares to pull himself up against the rock again and then aims his newly digistructed pistol at the very pissed off nomad that lumbers over to him now. Once you’ve fired a few shots, it’s really not all that hard anymore, he muses. It helps, of course, that Maya and Zer0 are lending him support with their skills.

Rhys starts to sync with them after a moment. When Maya phaselocks someone, he shoots at them. When Zer0 glitches out of sight, he distracts the target by throwing his gun at them so the Assassin can land a successful blow from behind. He almost starts to feel like a part of the team, almost dares to have fun with the ambush.

Then the landslide decides to make things awkward again.

It’s a very unlucky chain of events, really. Aurelia has sent some waves of ice against the bandits, making a ledge behind them freeze. When Deathtrap claps his hands together and causes an explosion, it vibrates hard through the mountainside. The frozen water inside of the ledge is not happy. It expresses said unhappiness by making the ledge fall.

“Watch out!” Maya screams, but it’s already too late. As the ledge crumbles, scree and pebbles come thundering down the mountain, choosing the pass that they’re standing on as waypoint of their own path as well.

Maya phaselocks a rock that would almost have crushed Aurelia underneath it. Aurelia curses and tries to draw up a wall of ice, but it’s not enough to stop the landslide. Deathtrap grabs Gaige and pulls her to safety. Before Rhys can get out of his state of shock, Zer0 has appeared beside him, and tears him out of the danger zone.

Most of the bandits are not so lucky.

When the dust settles, Rhys is still coughing half of his lungs out, blinking some particles out of his eyes. It’s eerily quiet after the hubbub. Then, Gaige’s voice cuts through the silence.

“Maya?” she calls. “Where’s Maya? She’s not here! MAYA! MAYA, WHERE ARE YOU! MAAAAYA!”

“She might have got stuck,” Zer0 says. Rhys can hardly see their silhouettes in the still lingering cloud of grey around him. “We must try to find her, quick | She might need our help.”

“Oh God, I hope she’s okay,” Gaige sobs. Rhys can see their figures moving through the rubble, searching for the missing Siren.

He activates his ECHO eye and scans his surroundings. His normal eye can hardly see anything in all the grey and brown and ochre, but his ECHO eye is able to analyse shapes, find heat signatures, notice an anomaly. He finds Maya underneath a nomad’s corpse, unconscious, but very much alive. She moans lowly as he touches her bare arm.

“She’s here!” he calls. “I found her! She’s alive!”

“Oh, thank God!” Gaige cries from a couple of paces away from Rhys. She comes stumbling over the rubble, but Deathtrap and Zer0 are there first, pulling and heaving until they got Maya free. Aurelia injects some Anshin into her body. Rhys doesn’t notice how tense he actually is until Zer0 puts a hand onto his shoulder and he sags a little into the touch.


	25. Chapter 25

“Well, so much for Droprock Valley,” Gaige mumbles as they sit in a circle around their campfire in the very same spot they camped in yesterday. After they dragged themselves back down the mountain, they decided to leave it be for today. None of them felt like taking another step after the disaster that was today’s trip.

“We can’t reach it over the mountain pass anymore now, no,” Maya confirms. The Anshin has helped get her back on her feet, but she’s huddled inside of a blanket and leaning against Zer0’s side. “If you still want to get there, Rhys, we’d have to make a big detour.”

Rhys looks up from his ECHO device. He knows what Maya means; the mountain range goes on for quite a while, and driving around it to Sinderpoint Point would take at least two days. Normally, they would have gone over the pass and reached Sinderpoint Point in only half a day, and the Vault Hunters would have been able to continue northeast from there. But now it would be easier to drive east for a day until they reach the end of the mountain range and then continue north, instead of going all the way west to Sinderpoint Point from there for another full day, only to _then_ continue northeast. Not to mention they already lost an entire day today.

“That’s okay,” Rhys says. “I have thought about it, and, uh… Well, if it’s okay with you, I’ll come and find that Vault with you.”

He _has_ thought about it, even though it might not seem like it. He doesn’t feel like chasing around Pandora to find a Hyperion Ground Base to fast travel back to Helios, only to sit around there, being nagged by Jack all the time who wants to know how things are going, and having to contact the Vault Hunters every day to ask for updates. Also, he must confess, he’s starting to like this adventure that they’re on, is starting to like travelling around with the Vault Hunters. It’s dangerous, sure, but he’s getting better at it. In two days, he already survived a thresher attack, a bandit ambush, and an avalanche. He’s pretty sure that whatever else Pandora might throw at him, he will do fine, as long as the Vault Hunters are with him.

And, to be honest, he’s starting to like being around those Vault Hunters, too.

Aurelia grins knowingly and Gaige’s face lights up for the first time since they made it down the mountain. Even Maya grants him a little smirk. “Alright, but remember,” she remarks teasingly, “you only paid us to find and open that Vault for you. Not to keep you safe while we do so.”

“Well, obviously, you didn’t see me take on those bandits,” Rhys replies bouncingly. “I think I handled myself preeeeetty well on that mountain pass.”

“I have,” the Siren says. “That’s why I find this fact worth mentioning.”

“I think the Anshin might have tempered with your memory,” Rhys sniffs. “One of my reloads hit a bandit in the _face_.”

“That might have been his ass,” Gaige comments. “It’s hard to tell because they’re all so ugly.”

That makes all of them break into laughter.

“You can stay with us as long as you want to,” Maya says. “Just know that it’s dangerous, and you might not always be so lucky.”

“I know,” Rhys assures her. “But you gotta take chances to get somewhere, right?”

“Right,” Maya says, and smiles at him. “Also, we’ll need somebody to gut our skags.”


	26. Chapter 26

“What do you mean you’re not coming back?” Vaughn asks. He sounds slightly panicked, even over the engine noise.

“I _am_ coming back, bro,” Rhys appeases him. “Just might take a little longer than we planned it. I want to stay with the Vault Hunters and search for the Vault with them. Thought that would be more effective than trying to give them directions from… _upstairs_.”

“… Upstairs,” Vaughn repeats. “Rhys, I don’t know what’s going on down there, but it sounds like you’re getting a little too involved in this.”

“Well, maybe I’m done being pushed around by Jack,” Rhys says defiantly. “And maybe _I_ don’t want to push people around _for him_. I want to _do_ something, Vaughn. We fought some bandits yesterday, and I threw my Tediore in one of their faces!”

“You’re not a Vault Hunter, Rhys,” Vaughn tells him. “You’re Hyperion. When they find out, they will kill you. You’re not safe with them, okay, bro? You should come back here as soon as possible.”

Rhys pouts. He knows that Vaughn is right, but he doesn’t want him to be. He considers himself part of the team now, and he doesn’t like the fact that yes, maybe that is built upon a lie. That yes, maybe, if the others find out, they wouldn’t be very happy about it.

“They won’t drop me off at Sinderpoint Point,” he explains, sounding grumpy. “I _have_ to stay with them for quite a long while, Vaughn. There are no Hyperion Ground Bases up north, and that is where we’re going now.”

“I can always let someone from a Ground Base pick you up somewhere,” Vaughn offers. “Sinderpoint Point was close to the nearest Base, but that doesn’t mean they can’t pick you up from anywhere else, too.”

“And you think it’s safer for me to wait around for days in some Pandoran village for Hyperion personnel to pick me up so they can issue me a Fast Travel access card?” Rhys asks.

“I… guess so,” Vaughn says, but he doesn’t sound too convinced himself. “Vault Hunters _attract_ , trouble, Rhys. You’re in harm’s way when you stay with them, and I’m just… worried about you, okay?”

Rhys sighs and closes his eyes for a moment. He can understand Vaughn. He would be just as worried if it were the other way around, and he can’t blame his best friend for not getting how exhilarating it feels to be part of a Vault Hunter team. Maybe Rhys _is_ insane after all. The way his butt hurts when the car rumbles over a rock makes him think that he just might be.

“Tell you what, bro,” he says. “You prime a Loader Bot and have it track my position via ECHO at all times. One of those things that can fly, those… flying things. And if I ever get into trouble, I will send an emergency signal, and the bot can come and get me out, okay? Fly me to the nearest Hyperion station. Does that sound alright with you, bro?”

“Well, it’s better than nothing,” Vaughn mumbles. “Just… stay safe down there, okay, Rhys? I don’t want to lose my best friend to Pandora.”

“I won’t die, Vaughn,” Rhys promises. “You won’t get all the fame and riches for yourself, I’ll make sure of that.”

“Well, good,” Vaughn says, sounding a little bit more cheerful now. “Cause I want a statue of me, and I want it to be bigger than yours.”

“Not even in your _dreams_ ,” Rhys teases.

“I don’t know, my dreams can get pretty awesome,” Vaughn states.

“Not as awesome as my statue’s gonna be,” Rhys says.

Vaughn grins at him. Then he turns serious again, the worried look coming back down on his features. “Don’t forget to bring me a souvenir, okay, bro?” he asks. “And… I’d prefer it if you give it to me on Helios. In person.”

“I will, bro,” Rhys assures him. “I’ll be back on Helios in no time. And I’ll notice if you ate any of my puddings!”


	27. Chapter 27

They drive east towards the foothills of the mountain range. Rhys travels in the back of the car that Aurelia steers, because Gaige refuses to let Maya drive and doesn’t want to leave her side, even though the Siren seems totally fine again. When they decide to call it for the day, they set up camp near an old, empty shack, next to a little creek that provides them with fish for dinner. Rhys is currently gnawing on some weird, chewy plant that grows next to the creek bed and that, apparently, is supposed to be edible, when Maya’s ECHO goes off and she smiles fondly.

“That’s Axton,” she says. “I told him to ask around concerning the Vault Key.”

“Axtooon!” Gaige cheers. “Can I talk to him? After you two are done, of course. Which, by the way, if you need at little privacyyy…”

Maya rams her elbow into Gaige’s ribs who giggles, and then picks up her ECHO call. “Hey, Axton,” she greets in a warm tone. “What’s up?”

A hoarse voice comes over the speaker, loud enough for Rhys to hear it. “Hey, Maya,” it says cheerfully. “Boyfriend reporting back for duty! I asked around Sanctuary, like you told me. Roland and Lilith didn’t know anything, Mordi and Brick are currently gone, but Tannis was able to help me out.”

“Yeah?” Maya asks. “What did she tell you?”

“Given the location, she thinks you’re searching for the Vault of the Giantess. There are rumours about the Vault Key being hidden in a cave system not even too far away from the Vault. It’s split into several pieces though, and the cave system is supposed to be gigantic, so it might take a few days to actually find them all.”

“Let me guess,” Maya says. “There’s a giant monster living in the cave system, protecting at least one piece of the Vault Key.”

“It’s called Lagortha,” Axton confirms. “Something like a giant crabworm, I’ve been told.”

“Why does it always have to be monsters,” Gaige sighs.

“Is that Gaige?” Axton asks. “Hey, kid! How’s it hanging?”

“Hey, Ax!” Gaige cheers. “Pretty good! Deathtrap and I are missing your baby girl!”

“Aw, she misses you too,” Axton coos. “She loved that general overhaul that you gave her last month.”

“I knooooow, right?” Gaige says. “I give it to Deathtrap every month? He absolutely _loves_ it, too. It’s so good for their mechanics, you know, like a spa treatment? Just the other day I figured that –”

“Can we get back to business, please?” Maya interrupts, slightly annoyed. “You can talk weird robot lovers later. Where exactly is that cave system?”

“Right, right,” Axton gets back to the topic at hand. “You want to enter the Scraplands, and then turn west, heading for the Red Mountainfront. The entrance to the cave system can only be reached from there.”

“Good. Do we have a map or any other information where to find the hidden Key fragments?”

“Nope,” Axton says. “Not many people enter the system, and even less of them make it out alive again. All I can tell you is to stay on your toes. You want me to come over and lend moral support?”

“I think we can handle ourselves,” Maya decides. “But I demand a foot massage when I come back to Sanctuary.”

“Deal,” Axton says, grin audible in his voice. “Be careful out there, okay, ladies? I need all of you back alive and well.”

“I will do my best,” Zer0 says dryly.

Axton just laughs. “Alright, talk to you guys later, then. Take care, all of you. I love you, Maya.”

“Love you too, loser,” Maya says with a smile. She hangs up the call and stores her ECHO recorder.

“Well then,” Aurelia says. “Sounds like we should equip ourselves with flashlights.”

“Sounds like it, yeah,” Maya confirms. “And I hope that none of you has an issue with bugs.”


	28. Chapter 28

“We have a clue about the Vault Key now.”

It’s night already. The others are sleeping in the shack, while Zer0 has climbed to a little outcropping to take watch from up there with a sniper rifle. Rhys sits by the creek, his back leaned against a bigger rock, and watches the reflection of the stars dance over the rippling water. He’s tired, but he wanted to talk to Jack first.

The CEO of Hyperion has left a passive line open for Rhys after his last call. Whenever Rhys wants to talk to him, he can pick it up and activate it, and Jack answered immediately. Apparently, Rhys’ little outburst helped.

“Really?” Jack asks. He sounds tired too. His voice his hoarser now, but there’s the same sort of friendliness to it that he put on right after Rhys got grumpy last time they spoke. “Where is it?”

“According to rumours, in a cave system at the western edge of the Scraplands,” Rhys informs him. “Some sort of, uh, giant… crab… worm…? is apparently guarding it.”

“Fuckers,” Jack says. “Second worst form of crabs. Where are you now?”

“Still at the Borderband. We reached its foothills today and will continue to the Scraplands tomorrow. It’ll take us two more days to reach the cave system, I think.”

“Plus you need to find the Vault Key, and then you need to get to the Vault,” Jack adds. “Great. That means I’ll be stuck in here for at least another week, then.”

“Well, we are working as fast as we can,” Rhys says, a tad miffed.

“I know,” Jack huffs. Then, his voice more under control again, he says, “I know. I’m sorry, Kiddo. It’s just getting really bad in here.”

Rhys is quiet for a moment. Once again, he imagines what it feels like, being all alone, trapped inside a Vault, no food, no company, just a giant, sleeping Vault Monster. He’s sorry for Jack, even though he’s an asshole.

“We will get you out of there,” he promises. “We’ll –”

“So you’re still with the Vault Hunters,” Jack interrupts him. “Didn’t you want to get a new Fast Travel pass and then go back to Helios?”

Something in Jack’s voice makes Rhys feel caught somehow. He writhes a little and changes his sitting position. “Uh, yes,” he admits. “We couldn’t get over the mountain pass, a landslide cut off the way. Droprock Valley is not on our course any longer, so I thought it would be easier to just stick with the Vault Hunters until they find the Vault and then –”

“The Vault Hunters,” Jack interrupts him once more, and now all of the friendliness is gone from his voice, “are dangerous people, Rhys. Didn’t I tell you to stay away from them?”

Rhys glare-pouts, even though Jack can’t see it right now. “Well, you’re telling me a lot of things,” he states.

“Then why,” Jack asks, “are you not _listening_ to me? The Vault Hunters are mercenaries, Kiddo. They work for money and nothing else. You’re not essential to their mission if you paid them already. They won’t protect you if you get in harm’s way.”

“I just wonder, Jack,” Rhys says, “if you are worried about _me_ here, or just about yourself.”

There’s silence on the other end of the line for a moment. When Jack talks again, his voice is low and tight. “Fine, then,” he hisses. “Ask them, Pumpkin. Ask them about Hyperion. Ask them what they think of people like you. They hate me, oh yes, but you _work_ for me, Princess. You’re _one_ of me. And as soon as you tell them? You will be their enemy. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. _Both_ our lives are on the line here.”

“They’re not –”

“ _Ask_ _them_ ,” Jack insists. “You think I’m treating you like a Claptrap unit? _I_ am the only one here who _cares_ about you, Rhys.”

“You have a very weird way of showing that,” Rhys grunts.

There’s no reply. Jack must have hung up on him, which really doesn’t improve Rhys’ mood.

He looks over to the shack that the others are sleeping in. Both Vaughn and Jack have warned him about them today, have told him they would kill him if they found out he’s Hyperion. Rhys doesn’t want to believe them, doesn’t want to think the Vault Hunters would turn on him like that.

Still, as he finally lies down on the ground next to Aurelia to sleep, he wonders if she is the only one out of the four of them he can ever reveal his identity to without fear.


	29. Chapter 29

They stop at a little town the next day to stock up on supplies. They’ve already rounded the mountain range now and are headed north, but it’s still a long way until they’ll reach the Scraplands.

While Zer0 watches the cars, Aurelia and Maya have gone to get food supplies, and Gaige and Rhys are supposed to buy ammo. “We need to get you a corrosive gun,” Gaige notes while they shop at an _Ammo Dump_ vending machine. “There’s mostly armoured enemies up there, along, of course, with your regular skags.”

Rhys nods absent-mindedly. A girl is playing with her doll further down the road. Its yellow dress reminds Rhys of Hyperion.

“Hey, can I ask you something?” he says.

“Sure, shoot!” Gaige replies. Deathtrap is waiting next to her, his giant, clawed arms packed with ammunition boxes.

Rhys takes a look at the sky above him. He can’t see Helios from here, because his back is leaning against the wall of a building. Still, he can imagine it up there, a silhouette against the round, cracked form of Elpis. “Why do you Vault Hunters hate Hyperion so much?”

Gaige seems surprised, but then she answers. “Well, it’s a greedy corporation run by a tyrant,” she says. “They do horrible things and are horrible people.”

“They invent stuff,” Rhys says. “Robots, stabilisers, Fast Travel stations. They’re really far ahead in digistruct-tech, they invented E-tech guns and came up with Slag weapons.”

“Yeah, by testing it out on innocent people,” Gaige retorts. “And wrecking the entire planet for Eridium.”

“You’re still using all of their tech,” Rhys states.

“Doesn’t mean I like what they’re doing,” Gaige claims. “Do _you_ like everything Hyperion does?”

“Certainly not,” Rhys mumbles. “There’s really a whole bunch of assholes up there.”

“See? They’re suckers,” Gaige says. “Every corporation sucks, but Hyperion is definitely one of the worst.”

“My best friend is Hyperion,” Rhys notes.

Gaige cocks her head and hums lowly. “Well, nobody’s perfect,” she says with a shrug. “Hey, look, here’s a corrosive homing grenade mod!”

The girl with the doll now jumps around a metal sheet. Every time she hits it, there is a loud bang.

“If you throw these, they will home in on the target and explode,” Gaige says and shoves a mod and three grenades into Rhys’ hand. “This way, you don’t have to be the best aimer to hit something.” She grins and winks and then directs Deathtrap back to the waiting cars. Rhys casts another glance at the sky before he follows her.

He’s not quite sure what to think right now. If Vaughn is right, if Jack is right, if Gaige or any of the others are right. All he knows is that this mission is somehow becoming more than he expected it to be.


	30. Chapter 30

It’s not like nothing happens on the way to the Scraplands. It’s just that nothing _new_ happens on their way to the Scraplands. Sure, they drive through some skag-infested areas and have to shoot a whole bunch of those assholes before they can continue. One of them even jumps at Rhys and almost chews his face off before Aurelia shoots it in the mouth with a well-placed blow from her shotgun. Rhys washes skag-gunk out of his hair for almost half an hour that evening.

They also get ambushed by bandits again in the middle of the night when they try to sleep once. It’s horrible to shoot at people in the dark, but Rhys lands a pretty good shot to one of their faces.

The most horrible adventure probably is to let Gaige drive for a moment and Rhys trying to control the turret. They quickly switch places after Rhys almost shoots Maya when Gaige speeds their vehicle over a big rock and Rhys accidentally fires a salve at the other car that drives beside them.

All in all, it seems like a perfectly normal roadtrip on Pandora.

When they near the Scraplands, Rhys sits up in the back of the car. “Wow…” he mumbles. “Those really are some Scraplands… Where is all of that stuff coming from?”

“Oh, that'd be Dahl and Atlas, mostly,” Aurelia says. “They were the first to show some interest in Pandora. Atlas ultimately scared off Dahl, and the opening of the first Vault ultimately destroyed the Atlas forces. Now, this is all Hyperion’s playground. I bet your good friend Jack has dumped some of his old Loader Bots into this lovely little landscape, too.”

Rhys frowns slightly. He knew other companies have had an interest in Pandora. He just didn’t know the entire planet was shaped and built by their mistakes.

“Get your corrosive guns ready,” Gaige shouts from the other vehicle. “We have to leave the cars soon, and the enemies here use the scrap for armour!”

“I only have those corrosive grenades yet,” Rhys shouts back. “Anybody got a gun for me?”

“You can have my SMG,” Maya yells. “You’ll have to reload manually, though!”

“I’m sure I can do that,” Rhys claims.

“I’m sure you can’t,” Maya says.

They drive until they reach something like a barricade made out of bars and metal sheets. The area is vastly surrounded by a fence, so there’s really no way to get the cars inside. Zer0 and Maya park the vehicles in front of the barricade and everybody climbs out of their seats.

“Alright, then,” Maya says. “It will take us the rest of the day to make it to the entrance of the cave system at Red Mountainfront. We will camp there, and then go search for the Vault Key tomorrow.”

“Sounds good to me!” Gaige announces. She has her _Conference Call_ in both hands already. She loves to slag their opponents with it to give the other Vault Hunters more damage count. “Let’s go and kill us some metal freaks!”

Maya presses a gun and ammunition in Rhys’ hand as the others already climb over the barricade. It’s a neat Maliwan SMG, glowing green where the acid is stored.

“You’re doing surprisingly well, I must say,” she admits. “Didn’t think you would still be alive to this point, but you’re stubborn.”

“Well, thanks,” Rhys replies. “I'll take that as a compliment.”

“It was meant as one,” Maya confirms. She studies him, and Rhys almost shrinks a little bit, afraid she's able to see what he's hiding just by looking at him that closely.

“Still be careful,” she finally advises. “We made a bet on when you would die, and I already lost it, but I don't want any of the others to win.”

“Gee, thank you,” Rhys says, pouting a little. “ _I_ want to make a bet that I will survive _all_ of this, and if I win, I want my 20 million back.”

“Nice try,” Maya grins and gets her own corrosive gun ready. She walks towards the barricade and climbs over it in a few easy movements. Rhys looks down at the SMG in his hand and watches the magazine rotate slowly.

“You coming, Rhys?” Gaige calls from the other side of the barricade. “I already found a really cool tin can hat over here! You're missing out on A class fashion items!”

“I'm coming,” Rhys calls back. He surely doesn't look as elegant as the others as he climbs over the barricade made out of junk. But the Vault Hunters are waiting for him on the other side. And Gaige in her new tin can hat is definitely worth climbing over scrap metal for.


	31. Chapter 31

Armoured enemies are far harder to fight, Rhys has to realise painfully. Also, it’s far bigger of a mess to end them.

The bandits who live here clad themselves in scraps and spare metal parts, protecting their bodies from anything but a good acid shot, and watching the acid eat holes into their armour (and then into their flesh afterwards) is… well, it’s nothing Rhys will miss when he is back on Helios.

But worse than the bandits are the Hyperion robots.

Rhys has no idea how they ended up here. So far north, Hyperion barely has any troops or personnel. Most of their forces are located on the northwest coast of Pandora, most of their fortified camps and stations are set up in the Highlands. But somehow, Jack still managed to get his long, never-resting fingers to this outer part of his forcefully claimed kingdom.

Rhys doesn’t even recognise the first Hyperion bot as it comes waddling towards them, gun pointed at their little group. So many parts have fallen off of it and have been replaced by junk that it hardly even looks Hyperion anymore; even the paint has worn off under rust and the cruel rub of the Pandoran sand whipped around by the wind.

“Bandits detected,” the robot says in its typical tinny voice. And then, “Die.”

Rhys feels so overwhelmed by pity that he’s frozen in place until the first shot hits his chest and gets absorbed by Zer0’s shield. Only then does he raise his gun in a reflex and fires a salve into the robot’s dully gleaming eye. The acid consumes it rapidly. There’s a lump in Rhys’ throat he has to swallow against as the robot keels over and makes a rattling sound on the metal-covered ground.

They reach the entrance to the cave system by nightfall and set up their camp in a little place secluded by rocks and outcroppings. The light of their campfire gets swallowed by the stone. One of the skags they killed on their way to get here serves as their dinner.

Rhys hardly feels hungry despite their long trip today. While Maya and Gaige are off to wash themselves and Zer0 has taken up his guard spot on top of a giant boulder, Rhys stares into the fire, his portion of the skag still being almost completely untouched.

It takes Aurelia two tries to reach him through the weight of his heavy thoughts.

“You seem a bit off tonight, Hyperion boy,” she notes. “Getting homesick now after all?”

Rhys is not homesick. His home is looming far above them, lights glittering on the night sky like they're stars. His home looks very, very different from down here, just like Pandora looks very, very different from up there.

“You've worked with Jack before, right?” he asks, without looking up from the dance of the crackling flames. “What is he like?”

“Mister Handsome?” Aurelia says. “Oh dear, let's see. Charming, cunning, ruthless, manipulative, funny, unconscionable. He knows what he wants, and he _will_ get it, no matter how many dead bodies he has to waltz over on his way to the top. Did you know he killed the former CEO of Hyperion to get into power?”

“What was he like to _you_?” Rhys specifies. “To his team? You worked for him, right? Did he ever kill _you_ and walked over _your_ body?”

“Oh, darling, he couldn't kill me if he _tried_ ,” Aurelia makes clear. “But since I assume this to be a metaphor: I can't say that he did. He wanted that Vault, and it was dangerous to get it for him, but he paid us for it, and we always had the chance to opt out at any point. Which none of us did, but I doubt it would have had any consequences.”

“Hmmh,” Rhys hums. “What happened afterwards?”

“Afterwards?” Aurelia asks. “After we did our job? Well, I left him. So did Athena. Wilhelm and Nisha stayed, so did Timothy. Though he had to stay for other reasons than the aforementioned, I assume.”

Rhys perks up. “Timothy worked on finding the Vault for Jack?” he asks.

“Yes!” Aurelia confirms. “He was quite a delightful boy. Do you know him?”

“Barely,” Rhys mumbles and looks back into the flames. Timothy... He remembers Tim's expression in the elevator. The fear, the exhaustion. Wonders why Timothy stays with Jack if he hates his job so much. Knows the answer. And he remembers that poor Hyperion robot, programmed to serve Jack until its end, firing at bandits like it's supposed to do, even after Jack abandoned it on a scrapyard.

“You seem rather gloomy today, darling,” Aurelia notes. “Are you positively alright?”

“Yeah, I'm fine,” Rhys mutters. Lies.

The reflection of the campfire flames makes his Hyperion cybernetic arm gleam.


	32. Chapter 32

They decide to split up to search for the Vault Key. Maya, Gaige (and Deathtrap) build one team, Zer0, Aurelia and Rhys the other.

Rhys is thankful he didn't end up with Gaige, because the young girl is far too talkative for his current taste. He would have liked to trade Aurelia for Maya, though, but Gaige insists on going with the Siren. Aurelia knows too much about Rhys. She has a look on her face whenever she glances over.

“We take the right way, you take the left,” Maya says as they stand in the tiny cave right behind the giant entrance. “We'll track our paths with our ECHO devices and sync them every hour to create a map of the cave system for us. If any of us needs assistance or finds a piece of the Vault Key, we'll contact the other team.”

“Also, whoever finds Lagortha first gets all the loot she drops,” Gaige says.

“She needs to die first,” Zer0 announces. “And the final blow is mine | So I'll get the loot.”

“Ooooo, we'll see about that, ninja boy,” Gaige claims.

“Can we quit talking and just be on our way already,” Aurelia grunts. Rhys is grateful for her impatience, because he would prefer to get this over with as soon as possible as well.

“Aaaawright,” Gaige says. “Giant crabworms, here we come!”

“I don’t know what’s there to be so enthusiastic about,” Maya comments, but she follows as Gaige charges ahead into the tunnel. Zer0, Rhys, and Aurelia turn around to take the other way.

Rhys doesn’t like heights (he’s afraid of heights, to be exact), but that doesn’t mean he’s super happy about being stuck underground either. It’s dark in the tunnels, and the ground is uneven. They brought portable lamps from their last stop in the little village, where they stocked up on supplies, but they only illuminate so much room with their light, and most of the space remains in darkness.

Sounds lurk in there; ominous rustling and scraping noises, the low dripping of water, the fall of their footsteps. Rhys is thankful the Vault Hunters let him walk in their middle, because he’s very concerned that the creatures living in these caves haven’t had anything decent to eat in a while and that, to their hungry eyes, he looks a lot like delicious dinner.

They walk for an hour, and then another. Zer0 and Maya exchange their ECHO trackings to fuse them into a map. Then they continue their march through the darkness.

It’s somewhere after lunch break when things decide to get really uncomfortable.

Now, the skags and the crabworms living in the caves are a nuisance (they're absolutely disgusting, by the way. Rhys hopes that his team _won't_ be the one to find and battle Lagortha first, because _small_ crabworms are already more than enough for his taste), but another big problem for their search is the environment of the caves themselves. They have to climb up rubble and skit down slopes, squeeze through tight openings and jump over clefts in the ground. More than once, they pass the bones or corpse of an unlucky adventurer who fell victim to the caves in one way or another. Rhys can't help but notice that some of them seem to have been Hyperion.

He knows that the cave they currently walk through has to be infested with skags when he sees another pile of bones littering the floor in front of them. The others must have noticed them as well, because they all draw their guns simultaneously.

The first angry growl rings out a second later.

“Get behind my back,” Aurelia says, ice already glittering in little crystals all around her. “I'll take the right side, you'll take the left.”

“I'll try,” Rhys mumbles and aims his gun into the growling darkness. He hates that he can barely see. Fighting skags in broad daylight is bad enough, but down here, it's a terrifying nightmare. He presses harder against Aurelia's back than he has to.

The problem is that he knows they won't be able to stay like this for long. Where Zer0 is capable of casting out his decoy and melting with the shadows to change his position on the battlefield, and Aurelia can freeze her enemies to the ground, Rhys has no way whatsoever to escape the snapping jaws of a hungry skag other than to avoid them the old-fashioned way: He has to move and back away from the charging target.

The first few skags are not an issue. But sooner than Rhys would have liked it, they start to close in from various sides, and he has to break away from Aurelia's protecting back not to be cornered and attacked from one direction while he is currently shooting a skag that charges from the other. Aurelia does her best to follow him, but it's hard to stay close in the dynamic of the battle.

Things get so much worse when something tall and shimmering appears in the darkness.

“Attention!” Zer0 calls from somewhere. “Badass!”

It _is_ a badass. A giant skag of shock element, looming tall above its normal siblings. Lightning crackles all over its body, turning it an eerie shade of blue. Were it not so terrifying, it could almost count as a strange kind of beautiful.

“Run,” Aurelia orders plainly.

Rhys doesn't have to be told twice.

He darts away as the badass starts to roar, and its fellow skags roar along with it. Lightning shoots out from the badass skag's body and wraps itself around the forms of its closer siblings, engulfing them in blue bolts of electricity. Rhys doesn't get far until the first now suddenly shock-charged skag has reached him and tries to get a bite out of his legs.

Rhys still has the non-elemental Tediore pistol he got from Maya at the beginning of their adventure. He aims for the snapping jaws of the skag and fires a round right into its opening mouth. It collapses, and Rhys continues running, but his shield has taken a lot of damage from the shock attack.

Another skag comes for him, a second one already growls behind his back. Rhys turns and unleashes another salve of bullets, throws his weapon into the face of the other skag behind him, fires the newly digistructed weapon in his hand while his reload-throw explodes into the skag's face. Something jumps at him out of the corner of his vision. Rhys ducks and leaps and tries to shoot while he is landing.

“Get to the right, Rhys!” he hears Aurelia yell from somewhere. “Get to the opening on the right side of the cave!”

Rhys has no idea where the right side even is anymore. He hears jaws snapping to his left and rolls around, fires, hits something. A swooshing noise tells him that his shield is now down. He gets on his feet and charges forward.

His lamp is gone. Where is his lamp? He can't turn around to find it now. He must have lost it somewhere, it is still casting light, but not enough. Rhys can barely see the next charging skag, but he manages to throw his gun right into its mouth before he takes a daring leap to the side.

Where he should land back on the ground, there is no ground.

He falls, far longer than he should be falling.

Rhys is so surprised that he can't even scream, and when he thinks about screaming, it's already too late. He falls and falls and _falls_ into the darkness, until, finally, he has found the missing ground. It's a hard and unpleasant meeting. It knocks the breath right out of his lungs and with it also goes Rhys' consciousness.


	33. Chapter 33

When Rhys wakes up, he feels cold and miserable.

His next thought is that, maybe, a skag is already nibbling at his body, and he jerks upwards, reaching for his gun. The pain that lances through his body makes him gasp.

Rhys groans and lies back down, squeezing his eyes shut even though it’s dark around him anyways. There is no source of light down here to peel a shape out of the darkness, nothing at all to give him a hint at where he is.

After a moment, Rhys activates his holo-emitter.

In the soft, dull glow of his cybernetic, he can make out rocks and uneven ground. Water is running right beside him, he now realises. The sound of it is strange and calming to his ears.

He tries to sit up another time, but fails. His head hurts so much that he can’t even lift it, he gets dizzy and feels like he might throw up. Carefully, he turns onto his side, casting the light of his holo-emitter as far as it will go into the darkness.

There’s no question that he fell into the stream that flows beside him. His hair is still wet, as are his clothes, which is why he’s cold and shivers helplessly. The water must have carried him to where he lies, must have washed him ashore in this wide, shallow curve before continuing its journey on without him as a ballast.

How far it took him is impossible to tell.

Rhys lowers his hand and places it right next to himself, curving inwards, light spilling against his chest. It’s not warm, but it’s a comfort. He doesn’t feel quite as helpless when he has at least a tiny bit of light around him.

He reaches for his gun again, this time slower. His digistruct unit is still intact, and he has his two guns in there, as well as ammo for both the pistol and the SMG. So far, there’s no sign of any living being here except for Rhys, but it still soothes him to know that he can defend himself should the need for it occur.

His ECHO recorder is also still with him. Rhys brings it up to his face, tries to work it with his trembling fingers. The numbers of all the four Vault Hunters are saved on there, and he knows the one of Vaughn by heart. He tries to call Zer0 first. His ECHO device tells him that the call can’t be connected.

Rhys tries Aurelia, Gaige, Maya, and then Vaughn. He sends messages out to all five of them next. The result stays the same; there seems to be no signal this far down inside the caves.

Rhys closes his eyes and just lies there for a moment.

The sound of the water echoes in the vast room of the giant cave. It’s the only sound around him, the only thing that Rhys can hear.

He can’t get help.

He can’t reach anybody.

He’s alone and cold, and he feels like crying.

Rhys has no idea how long he lies like this, how long it takes until he has stopped shivering, how long it takes until the pain inside his skull is just white background noise.

When he gets the call, he doesn’t even realise it at first.

“Kiddo?” a familiar voice asks inside his head. “Hey, Kiddo? You okay?”

“Jack,” Rhys whispers. He is not okay. He sobs in relief as he hears the other man.

“Whoa there, Rhys, are you alright?” Jack asks, concerned. “I can’t see shit through your ECHO eye, where are you? What’s happening? Talk to me, are you even still alive?”

Rhys has to take a long, deep breath so he can answer. “I fell,” he replies, and is shocked at how much his voice shakes when he’s talking. “I fell through a hole in the ground into the water. I don’t know where the others are. I can’t reach them over my ECHO device.”

“Well, good thing I permanently hacked into your system, huh?” Jack asks. He sounds mocking, but he also sounds pitiful. A gentle jab to bring a smile to Rhys’ cold and quivering lips. “Where are you, Pumpkin? Are you inside the cave system already?”

“Yeah,” Rhys says. “There was a hole in the ground. I fell through it.”

“Hmmm,” Jack hums. “Are you injured, Cupcake? Can you move around?”

“Not much,” Rhys replies. “I hurt everywhere. I don’t know if anything is broken.”

“Try moving again,” Jack tells him. “Carefully, limb by limb. If anything’s broken, you won’t be able to do so.”

“Okay,” Rhys mumbles. “Just gimme a minute.”

Very slowly, he turns onto his back again and then he starts to move his fingers. His hand, his arm, his shoulder. His toes. Everything feels like it is stiff from the coldness, but nothing protests against being moved.

“I can do anything but sit up,” he concludes finally. “If I try to sit up, I get really sick.”

“Maybe a concussion,” Jack muses. “Do you have some Anshin with you?”

“I think,” Rhys says. “Maybe. We all packed some supplies in case we had to take care of ourselves in here. But I don’t know if the water washed some of it away.”

“Look for it, then,” Jack advises. “It will help to at least get rid of the pain.”

Rhys carefully feels around his belt. The little bag for his supplies is still tightly strapped to it. Some food and two vials of Anshin are inside.

“I got some,” he announces.

“Take it,” Jack says. “But be careful with it. Don’t take the entire dose at once. One third of it should be enough for now, take the rest of it later.”

“Okay,” Rhys mutters again. He fishes one of the vials out of the bag. While his right hand works as a flashlight, his left hand pulls up his shirt and then carefully injects a part of the Anshin into his side.

The pain ebbs away and there’s instant relief.

“Better?” Jack asks at Rhys’ thankful groan. “Anshin can’t do much, but their serum really is the shit. Take another dose when the pain gets too bad again. But you should definitely go and see a doctor when you can.”

“How?” Rhys asks, a tad grumpy. Now that the pain subsided, he feels less desperate and starts to get a bit angry for a change. “I’m stuck in a cave system so far below ground that my ECHO device is not working anymore. I have no idea where I am, and neither do the other Vault Hunters. I doubt that one of the crabworms gathering in the shadows somewhere to feed on me for lunch will have a doctorate in human medicine.”

“Yeah, okay, it’s alright, let it out, Kiddo,” Jack says. “Anshin really seems to have helped. Talk me through it, what’s the situation there?”

“I fell,” Rhys repeats for the third time. “We were fighting some skags, I tried to avoid them, there was a hole in the ground I didn’t see, and I fell through it.”

“Into water?” Jack remembers.

“Yeah. There’s a stream that carried me with it. I don’t know how far. The ceiling is so high above me I can’t see it, so even if I follow the river back upstream, I won’t be able to tell where I dropped from.”

Jack hums. “Did the others see you fall?” he asks.

“I don’t know,” Rhys replies. “I was with Zer0 and Aurelia. The others took another route. Can… can you contact them? From your computer, maybe? Can you give them my location?”

“I can’t locate you that easily,” Jack admits. “I can’t track you from my computer, cause you’re off the ECHOnet. All I have is my shitty little device here, and that can’t pinpoint where your signal comes from.”

“But can you call Aurelia and redirect her to my frequency? You can talk to me, and you can talk to her, right? So can’t you set up a connection for us both?”

“My device only has one route,” Jack replies. “I can connect myself to my computer from it to call Aurelia, but I can’t also call you at the same time, since my computer can’t reach you, and my device will already be used to its capacity by keeping up the connection to my office. I _can_ call Aurelia though and tell her that you fell through the hole into a stream. Maybe that will help them find you.”

“Yeah,” Rhys says, a bit disappointed, a bit scared. “Yeah, thanks, please do that. Then they’ll at least know what happened to me.”

“Sure,” Jack says with a weird undertone. “Not certain they’ll interrupt their search for the Vault Key just to find you, but I’ll pass on the hint. Aurelia is a good one, if I promise her money, she might be on her way.”

“Why do you do that, Jack,” Rhys asks as he wraps his arms around his knees to warm himself. “It’s frightening enough to be stuck down here alone, why are you taking away my only hope?”

“Cause I know what it’s like, Pumpkin,” Jack says. “I’ve worked with Vault Hunters, I know they just want money. Because I’ve been betrayed and abandoned and left for dead so many times that I lost count and I’m not sure who is going to stab me in the back next. And because I’ve been stuck in here for weeks, and no one came to rescue me but myself. Nobody’s interested in helping you out, everybody’s just fighting for themselves, Princess.”

“I’ve come to help you,” Rhys remarks. “I could have used your clearance to become the next CEO of Hyperion, but I didn’t. And all I’ve gotten out of it so far is a headache.”

“That’s because we’re different, you and I, Breadcrumb,” Jack intones. “You helped me out, I’ll help you out. Can’t let each other be stuck in some weird caves now, can we?” He chuckles softly. It sounds partly joking, but also partly desperate, as if he expects Rhys to answer to it, reassure him.

Rhys has only been stuck here for a moment, but he can already imagine how horrible it must be for Jack.

“I’ll be right back after I contacted Aurelia,” Jack says almost joyfully. “Don’t get yourself into trouble, ‘kay, Pumpkin? We just became friends, don’t wanna lose you to the crabworms already. Hang on!”

There’s silence now. Jack has hung up to contact Aurelia. Rhys takes the time he has alone to think about his current situation.

If he walks away from the stream, he limits his chances of the others finding him. The river gives a clear route they can follow once they get to it; if they split up and walk along the shore, they’re sure to find Rhys sooner or later. It also provides Rhys with water. The only problem is that animals might come to drink from it, too.

If he decides to move, he might be able to find a way back upstairs, where his ECHO device could get a signal again. Then he could contact the others and it would be easier to reunite with them. He could also explore more of the caves and maybe expand their combined map this way. He’s sure to run into complications though, like skags or crabworms or other difficulties. Right now, Rhys for sure doesn’t feel equipped to handle such things. He decides to wait until he is better to figure out what he should be doing next.


	34. Chapter 34

“Hey, Kid. Kiddo. Hey, bud. You asleep, Cupcake?”

Rhys groans softly and tries to bat the sound away. Of course, that tactic isn’t working.

“Listen, Pumpkin, I don’t mind you sleeping, okay? But at this point, I can’t tell whether you’re asleep or actually dead, so you gotta help me out a bit, alright? Groan once for dead, twice for sleeping. Then I will leave you alone again, I promise.”

Rhys blinks and wonders why it’s dark for a moment. Then he remembers and groans again loudly.

“I’m awake…” he mumbles and rubs his forehead. “Sorry, I must have been exhausted. How long have I been out? Did you talk to Aurelia?”

“Yes and no,” Jack replies. “She didn’t pick up my call, but I assume that was a tactical move so she wouldn’t have to talk to me in front of the others. I sent her a message, though, and it went through. She’s a clever girl, she’ll know what to do with it.”

“I hope so,” Rhys mumbles and sits up. He’s still cold, and also tired and hungry on top of it. But at least the headache hasn’t come back yet. “How long do you think it will take them to find me?” he wonders.

“I dunno,” Jack replies honestly. “Could be hours, could be days. Depends on where they are and where the river has taken you.”

“Great,” Rhys grumbles and tries to rub some warmth into his limbs. “If I have to stay here for days, I might as well jump back into the river.”

“Sucks to be stuck in a cave all alone, huh?” Jack asks. “Never would have thought. Imagine what it’s like for weeks.”

“Yeah, I got it, Jack, you’re in a bad place,” Rhys snaps and hugs himself for even more warmth. “Believe it or not, that doesn’t make _me_ feel better personally.”

Jack doesn’t reply to that, and, after a moment, Rhys already feels sorry for his remark. He’s angry after just a few hours, with someone to talk and somebody on the search for him. Jack has been alone in the Vault for two weeks before he even managed to contact somebody, and it’s been another bunch of days since then that he had to spent inside of there with no one else to talk to but Rhys. God knows what he’s eating and drinking in there, too. At least Rhys has some water, food, and Anshin at his disposal, even though he’s cold and hurting.

“I hope we’ll find the Vault Key soon to get you out of there,” he says appeasingly.

“Yeah, sure hope so too,” the CEO of Hyperion agrees. “It’s, you know. Not really getting any better the longer you are stuck in here.”

Rhys hums in sympathy. “You said something about the Angel charging the Vault Key for you, right?” he remembers. “And when you touched it, it teleported you into the Vault. Couldn’t Angel also help in getting you back out of it? Maybe open up the Vault without the Key, teleport you back outside, something like that?”

A low and dry chuckle comes from Jack as a reply. “That’s not gonna happen, Pumpkin,” he claims. There’s a strange, defeated tone to his voice that Rhys has never heard in there before, despite Jack being stuck inside of a Vault all helpless and alone. “She wouldn’t get me out of here even if she could.”

Rhys feels that he is acting on very dangerous terrain. Feels that something about the topic is moving Jack, is rooted deep inside his core. When he speaks himself, his voice is soft and tender, trying not to scare Jack away from any answer.

“Why?” he asks. “Why wouldn’t Angel do that?”

“Because she hates me,” Jack answers simply. “Because she wants to get revenge on me by locking me away, just like I locked her away, even though it was for her own good.”

“You locked her away?” Rhys asks, a bit confused now. “Locked her away how? Did you restrict her access to some things?”

“Locked her in her chamber,” Jack explains. “She can access _everything_ from there, everything she’d ever dream of. She has power like no other, she has everything she needs. But she doesn’t understand that being stuck inside her chamber is the price she has to pay for being safe from all those bandits. All those murderers. She doesn’t see I’m keeping her protected by locking her away.”

“… Angel is a _person_?” Rhys asks tentatively. “I always thought she was a most advanced A.I.. A program that you wrote, or maybe something more, but… I never knew that she… You know… I thought you _made_ her.”

“Oh, I made her,” Jack replies. His voice is so heavy now, so full of something sad. “I made her, but not the way you’d think. Angel is my daughter. She’s a Siren, and her powers let her control any form of technology.”

His… _daughter_ …

“On my first days in the Vault I tried to convince myself it was simply an accident,” Jack goes on. “That she didn’t _mean_ to lock me away. But I know that it wasn’t. I know she meant to do that.” He chuckles again dryly before he continues. “I still don’t know how exactly she did it. How charging the Key of the Warrior enabled her to lock me inside of this Vault. But who knows how a Siren’s power works. Somehow she did it, and she’ll never get me out again.”

Rhys feels like a hole has opened inside of his chest, a vacuum. It’s sucking at his heart, his insides. It’s making his head spin like a merry-go-round.

Jack has a daughter. His daughter’s a Siren. And she locked him inside of that Vault to get rid of him.

“I… I’m sorry, Jack,” he mumbles. It’s just a flowery phrase, something he thinks he should be saying, but he doesn’t feel the words in his heart. He doesn’t feel _anything_ in his heart right now, just feels the weight that has settled on it.

“Me too, Kiddo,” Jack replies. “It’s like I said. Everyone abandons and betrays you. In the end, we’re all on our own, and it’s better to accept it now before you get your hopes up. Trust me, it’s a very, very deep fall from all up there, Pumpkin.”


	35. Chapter 35

Rhys pretends he’s tired to end the call with Jack, but he couldn’t go back to sleep if he tried it. Instead, he sits there, hugs his own knees, and stares ahead of him into the darkness.

Jack has a daughter. Rhys expected as much after he saw the photo of the little girl on Jack’s desk, but he never expected it to be like _this_.

Angel is a Siren. Jack locked her in a chamber to protect her from the bandits. And she hates him so much for it that she locked him in a chamber in return.

Rhys doesn’t know the whole story, of course. He doesn’t know why exactly Jack locked his own daughter away, why he thinks the bandits will be out to get her (they surely haven’t gotten Maya yet, and she is very openly out there on Pandora). But he knows there must be a bigger story behind it, something more than just a father being concerned for the wellbeing of his daughter.

And he would love to hear _Angel_ ’s side of this story as well.

All the thinking makes his headache return and he takes another little dose of Anshin. To not upset his stomach with it, he also eats a few of his supplies. Then he goes back to sitting all alone in cold and darkness, contemplating.

He can’t stay here. He can’t stay sitting by the river, not even knowing where he is, not being able to contact anybody. He needs to get moving, needs to find a way to get to higher grounds, so his ECHO will pick back up the signal.

He can’t rely on Jack really having contacted Aurelia.

And he can’t rely on anybody saving him.

He has to get himself to safety, and the quicker he does it, the better it is for him.

He makes light with his holo-emitter and carefully gets back up on his two legs. They’re wobbly and he almost falls back down right away, but after a moment of balancing himself, he manages to stay upright.

He gets out his water bottle and fills it to the brim at the river. Then he stows it back in his little supply bag and takes a closer look at his surroundings.

Where should he go? Should he follow the river? No, the river might be dangerous. Animals will most likely come here to drink, and he could slip and fall right back into it. Maybe he wouldn’t be so lucky this time and drown. No, he definitely shouldn’t follow the river.

But where to then? Just walk into the darkness and get lost? He might run into skags again, or worse, a giant crabworm. Rhys shudders at the thought of Lagortha being out there, waiting for him to be her next snack. But these are the only two options he has. And so he decides to walk away from the river.

His holo-emitter is his only source of light as he starts moving. Since his ECHO device has no connection to the system, he can't use it to track his steps and create a map for him, but he still activates its tracking system. Once the signal is back, it will start recording.

Rhys has lost all sense of time, and moving through the darkness doesn't help much in bringing it back to him. When he gets too thirsty, he stops and takes a sip, and when he can't stand the hunger, he nibbles some supplies. His headache and his nausea seem to mostly have been dealt with by the Anshin, so he passes up on another dose for now.

What he _does_ realise, despite time being beyond him right now, is that he doesn't seem to run into any living creatures somehow. He _knows_ he has passed quite some distance by now, he remembers stumbling through long tunnels and a few different caves, but none of them seem to be inhabited by something. Rhys would actually prefer to meet something. Nothing living in these parts of the caves is somehow more unsettling than having to run away from a bunch of skags would be.

When he gets too tired, he climbs up to a little plateau and rolls into a ball on the uneven ground. He has dried completely by now, but he's still shivering, and he takes the last dose of his first Anshin vial to make sure he won't wake up with a cold. He looks at his ECHO, but there's still no signal. None of his calls go through when he tries it. Sighing, Rhys closes his eyes and manages to fall into an uneasy sleep.


	36. Chapter 36

Hours, days, Rhys doesn't know how much time passes like that. He walks, he eats, he drinks, he sleeps. It could be weeks, or it could all happen within just a day or two. All he knows is that he checks his ECHO far too often and that there never is a signal he can work with.

His supplies start to shrink, he feels cranky and beaten. He actually _wants_ to shoot something by now, but nothing is around – not even a tiny larva crabworm.

When he sees the purple light shine through the darkness, the first thing he thinks is that he finally managed to go completely insane. It would be fitting, right? Got lost in a cave, not able to find his way out, his brain slowly starting to fall to pieces.

Then he realises what really must be happening. And suddenly, he feels very much awake again.

Rhys switches off his holo-emitter and starts to hurry towards the light source. It's somewhere higher up, he has to climb a collapsed tunnel full of rubble, but he's too excited and hopeful to feel the burning in his arms and legs.

Purple light can never be natural.

Something _important_ is emitting that sort of light.

The soft pulsing of it feels like an eddying to Rhys, pulling him closer and closer to its origin. He doesn't even have to search for it; the tunnel leads directly to a little cave, and the source of the light hovers right in front of its back wall.

It's a Vault Key piece.

Rhys has never seen anything more beautiful, and he definitely feels like he should drop onto his knees and thank the Vault Key for showing itself to him.

He doesn't, of course.

After all, he _hasn't_ gone completely insane yet.

Still, a relieved giggle escapes him as he moves closer, squinting slightly into the wonderful light. “Found you, you little bastard,” he says. “Man, you put me through some things, let me tell you.”

The others are gonna be so impressed with him, he thinks. He, Rhys, the little idiot they had to take with them against their will, the only one who isn't a Vault Hunter in their team, has found a piece of the legendary Vault Key. He's gonna brag with this for _days,_ he will never shut up about it! Grinning, he rounds the floating Vault Key piece, taking it in from every angle.

Rhys has never seen any part of a Vault Key up close. Sure, he has seen pictures of it – Hyperion's database has provided him with some things. But the pictures clearly don't do the real thing justice. Fascinated, Rhys outstretches his hand to touch his fingers to the Vault Key's surface.

A low rumbling noise warns him that he made a big mistake there.

Rhys jumps in reflex and clings to the Vault Key.

Something like an earthquake is shaking the floor, the walls, the entire cave is vibrating angrily. When it collapses, Rhys screams in terror, holding his metal arm above his head.

He doesn't know what exactly happened when he comes to again. He's lying in a giant field of rubble, covered in dust and boulders and debris, and he _hurts_ like he never hurt before all over. He coughs dust out of his lungs, whines from the pain of it, and fumbles around for something he's searching for. There was something with him. Something important. He doesn't remember what it was until he finds it.

The Vault Key is still emitting its light. It's buried under a pile of rubble, but it's still intact, nothing seems broken. Rhys clutches it to his chest, still coughing, holding onto it until he stopped shivering.

Of course, hiding the Key inside a goddamn giant cave system wasn't enough for whoever has put it here. Of course, they had to make the whole cave collapse as soon as someone would dare to touch it. An effective way to protect the Key – the person hiding it here could get out unharmed, but whoever would try to get the Key piece next would probably be crushed when the cave came down.

Rhys honestly doesn't know why he's still alive himself. If clinging to the Vault Key protected him. If his cybernetic arm did. All he knows is that he feels like he's broken, and just because he hasn't died immediately doesn't mean he will survive this.

Carefully, his hand still trembling, he searches his bag for his second Anshin vial. It's broken. A bit is still inside, but it's not all of it. Rhys injects the leftovers into his side and waits until the breathing doesn't hurt him anymore.

He doesn't have to move to realise he can't get out of the crater that he sits in. The rubble of the collapsing cave has blocked off the exit through the tunnel that Rhys came through, and there is no other opening anywhere around. High walls surround him on every side, and Rhys knows he won't be able to climb them. All he could do is try to dig through the rubble. But he doesn't remember where the entrance of the tunnel was, and so he doesn't know where to start the digging. He's weak and tired and he still feels broken. Searching for the tunnel might take him days, and then, he will still be stuck inside the cave system.

Rhys closes his eyes and hugs the Vault Key, pressing its purple light tightly to his chest.

“Jack,” he whispers. “Jack, are you there?”

“I'm here, Pumpkin,” Jack answers his call right away. “Glad to hear from you. Was afraid you were dead. You don't sound so well. Are you alright there?”

“No,” Rhys mumbles, and then he starts crying. “Jack, I need your help... I'm... _so_... stuck... I, I can't get out of here... Please, Jack... Please, you have to send someone to get me out... The Vault Hunters are not here... I need someone who finds and gets me, Jack...”

“Calm down, Rhysie,” Jack tells him gently. “Calm down, it's okay, I'm with you now. Where exactly are you? Are you still in the cave system?”

“Yeah,” Rhys sobs. “Yeah, I'm still stuck in here.”

“Okay, Breadcrumb, listen,” Jack says. “I _can_ order an entire squadron of Hyperion people to come and look for you. Or a bunch of Loader Bots. Or both, doesn't matter. But once they're out there, and once the Vault Hunters see them, they'll know, Rhys. They'll know you're Hyperion. Do you want to risk that? They will not be amused, let me tell you as much.”

“I don't! Care! About! The Vault Hunters!” Rhys exclaims angrily. “They're not here! They might never be here! What do I care if they see your Hyperion squadron!”

“Listen, Rhysie –”

“You don't care about me, do you,” Rhys snarls and wipes his tears away. “You don't care if the Vault Hunters hurt _me_ because I'm Hyperion, you're worried they're not gonna open _your_ Vault if they do. You always talk about how everyone betrayed you, but you're just the same, Jack. When I'm of no use to you anymore, you'll toss me away like one of your robots. Like _all_ your employees you don't give a damn about.”

“I told you we were friends, Cupcake,” Jack says. “I promised I would help you out. Why do you trust me so little? Have I done _anything_ yet to make you doubt me?”

“I saw how you treat other people,” Rhys claims lowly. He's still clinging to the Vault Key, eyes closed, so he doesn't have to face what is around him.

“Who?” Jack inquires. “Who did you see me treat unfairly, Sweetcheeks?”

“Timothy,” Rhys says. “He's absolutely _terrified_ of you.”

“Timothy signed a contract as my Doppelganger,” Jack explains. “He didn't know what he was getting himself into, but that's not my fault. He gets paid well, he leads a life of luxury, all he has to do is pretend to be me from time to time. I never did _anything_ to him except for letting him do his job, which consists of showing up at events, shaking hands, and kissing babies. Admittedly, the last part is kinda disgusting, but I wouldn't say I treat him unfairly.”

“What about all the still functioning robots you abandoned down here to rust and fall apart?”

“What? _Robots_?” Jack chuckles softly. “Pumpkin, I don't know what you're talking about. I send the robots down here to support the workers, but they are machines. Some of them malfunction, some of them get lost somewhere. I can't track each and every single one of them.”

“They're disposable to you,” Rhys says. “Everyone's disposable to you.”

“ _I_ was never the one to abandon the people close to me,” Jack claims. “My mum pawned me off on my grandmother when I was still little. My wife ran away from me. My other girlfriends left me. One of them tried to kill me and the entire space station I was on, has Aurelia ever told you about that? I am loyal, Kiddo. I always have been. It's the others who decide to betray me, I don't.”

“Why?” Rhys asks. “Why does everyone betray you, Jack?”

Jack is quiet for a very long moment. When he replies, he still sounds calm, but there's something tight inside of his voice. “I'll send someone to search for you, Breadcrumb,” he says. “Just hang in there a little while longer. Should I call you back when I'm done with it?”

“Yes, please,” Rhys says. He doesn't want to feel alone any longer. Even if Jack is lying to him, even if he will die in here, he still doesn't want to feel alone.

“Alright, Kitten,” Jack says. “I'll be back in a minute. Don't go anywhere!”

It's not funny to Rhys.

He lies down on the rubble, presses the Vault Key to his chest, and drowns in the absolute silence around him.


	37. Chapter 37

Rhys doesn’t know whether he fell asleep or became unconscious. All he knows is that when he wakes up, it’s still dark around him, and everything inside of him hurts.

“Jack?” he croaks. His voice is full of dust. “Jack, can you hear me?”

“Hey, Pumpkin,” Jack greets him softly. “Sorry, I didn’t want to wake you up, so I kept quiet when you didn’t reply to me first time. You okay?”

“Not really,” Rhys comments. “How long was I out?”

“Couple of hours,” Jack says. “Help is on its way, Kiddo. Shouldn’t take long for it to arrive anymore, okay?”

Rhys grunts softly. He remembers being suspicious, being in doubt about Jack. Seeing how he tosses other people away, how he mistreats them, how he doesn’t care for anyone but himself. Jack looks absolutely marvellous from far away, but the closer you get, the more cracks you can see in the beautiful surface.

“Did you hear anything from the other Vault Hunters?” he asks.

“Sadly not,” Jack claims. “’M afraid they’re still searching for you in the caves somewhere, Cupcake. I sent another message to Aurelia, telling her I sent help your way, but she hasn’t replied to me yet. Maybe some of them are cut from the signal too, like you are, though.”

Rhys just grunts lowly. He doesn’t care anymore. Doesn’t care who finds him, if Jack is telling the truth or not, if the Vault Hunters are even looking for him, if everyone has abandoned him and left him for dead. Sooner or later, they _will_ have to find him, even if it’s just his corpse clutching the piece of the Vault Key that they want to have.

“Have you talked to Vaughn?” he asks. “Is he okay? Does he know where I am?”

“I didn’t want to worry him,” Jack claims. “Do you want me to reach out to him?”

Rhys thinks for a moment. Then he shakes his head. “Not yet,” he says. “I’ll contact him myself if I get out of here. Just if… If I don’t… Can you…”

“Yeah,” Jack says. “No worries, Kitten. But you _will_ get out of there. I promise you.”

Rhys just grunts again, barely convinced.

“You still don't trust me, huh?” Jack asks. “Still think good ol' Jack is just playing you for a sucker. That's okay, Marshmallow. Haven't really had time to get to know each other and bond yet, have we? So, what's your favourite colour? Hey, you like watching soap operas by any chance? Missed a couple while I was stuck in here. Has Killagroy married Hoftersponch yet?”

“It's blue,” Rhys mumbles. “Hey, Jack? What will you do if the Vault Hunters find out I'm working for you and refuse to get you out of the Vault?”

“Ah, they won't,” Jack claims, sounding overconfident. “At least Aurelia already knows that you're working for me anyway, and she will do _anything_ if it's just interesting enough for her taste. The others, I will either pay more to, or, well, if they really refuse to help me out... Let's say, I now know that the Vault Key is hidden in that cave system and I don't depend on their help all that much.”

There it is again. That attitude Rhys used to be so worried about, back when he still cared about anything else besides getting out of that cave system somehow. Dropping everyone no longer useful.

He closes his eyes again to forget that it's dark around him.

“What's _your_ favourite colour?” he asks.

“Yellow,” Jack replies. “Hyperion used to be all black and red, you know? Like Vladof. Pretty boring if you ask me. Yellow pops better, don't you think?”

Rhys just makes a sound that can mean anything. His brain is too beaten to come up with any conversation topic. All it can think of is fresh air and sunlight, and some Anshin to get rid of all the pain.

“Hey,” Jack's voice cuts through the numbness. “You know the story of why it's actually dark at night?”

“What?” Rhys mumbles. “Isn't that, like... science?”

“Not the _reason_ , dumb-dumb,” Jack says. “The _story_. My grandma used to tell it to me when I couldn't sleep at night. Well, either that or she punched my lights out. Depended on her mood. Eh, but that is not the point. Did you hear of it?”

“No,” Rhys admits, a bit uncertain. “What's the story like?”

“Well, the story says,” Jack begins, “that everything used to be full of light constantly. Day in, day out, just bright fucking sunlight, all the goddamn time. In the beginning, everybody loved it, right, cause it was warm, it was pretty, it was practical... But then things started to get uncomfortable. It got too hot, it got too bright, the earth dried out, the people went blind, trees and flowers started to catch on fire. So people decided the sun was a danger.

They thought about ways to get rid of it, but nobody had any great idea. Until one day, when it was especially awful and hot outside, a man who carried his gun over his shoulder suddenly heard a shot go loose. The heat of the sun had set the gunpowder on fire, and the bullet shot all the way across the sky right into the sun's friggin' heart, like _pshoooo_! The sun was deadly wounded and began to sink immediately. Its blood tainted the sky red, the light began to ebb away, and when the sun had fallen below the horizon, darkness came and everything went black. The people were afraid for a moment, cause they couldn't see shit anymore and stuff, right? But then they realised it was cooling down, they could close their eyes and enjoy the darkness, it was a fucking relief from the constant sunlight. The fires went out, the land recovered, everybody lived happily ever after.

Well, the sun returned of course, cause it's a motherfucking skaglick. But every day, the brave man shot it in the heart and watched it bleed out, to assure the people a time of dark and peace and recovery. And when he died, his son probably took over or something, I don't know, who the fuck cares, point is! Darkness is nothing to be afraid of or something. The end.”

“... That's a horrible story,” Rhys states after a moment.

“It pretty much is, yeah,” Jack admits and then he laughs. “But it always helped me to see the good side of the darkness.”


	38. Chapter 38

Rhys still lies in the darkness clutching the Vault Key when he hears somebody call his name from far above him.

“Rhyyyyyyyyyyyys?” It's Maya's voice. “Rhys, are you down there?”

Rhys is not able to reply right away. He's not sure whether it even really happened, or if he starts to be delusional.

“Rhyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyys?” There it is again. And then, a bit lower, “Gaige, maybe send Deathtrap down there to look for him.”

Rhys opens his eyes and lays his head back. There's a shimmer of light somewhere up there in the darkness. Shadows seem to move around in it, but he can't really tell what is going on exactly.

“I'm here,” he tries to call, but it only comes out as a rusty croak.

“Rhys!” This time, it is Gaige's voice. “Stay where you are! We're coming to get you!”

Rhys carefully moves himself up into a sitting position, leaning heavily on his cybernetic arm.

“I'm here!” he calls again, louder this time. Suddenly, excitement is pulsing through his veins; no, not just excitement, it is panic. Panic that they will not get to him, panic that this is really just a dream that he imagines. “Guys, I'm down here! I can't get up alone, you've got to help me, please!” he shouts up towards them.

“We're on our way!” Gaige calls back down. “Deathtrap is coming for you! He'll get you up!”

Rhys is sobbing. He's sobbing and trembling and gasping for air, and he tries to get on his feet, even though they protest to hold his weight again. He stumbles, sways, almost drops the Vault Key. When Deathtrap reaches him, Rhys falls against him, thankful the robot catches him with its arms.

The flight up seems to take forever and also doesn't last longer than a second. Deathtrap carefully places Rhys on the ground, and, immediately, he is swarmed by the four Vault Hunters who ask if he's okay, pass him something to drink, and inject some more Anshin into his body.

Rhys is so overwhelmed that he just goes through it all without being able to say anything to it. After what's probably been a couple of minutes, Maya finally says his name, and Rhys looks up into her face that's hovering somewhere in front of him.

“Are you okay?” the Siren asks.

Rhys doesn't know, in all honesty. It feels like his brain is glitching out on him, and all he can think about is that it now is over.

“How did you find me?” he mumbles finally. “How did you know I was down there in that cavern?”

Maya's face darkens, her fine brows knitting together in a frown. “We had help, actually,” she says and nods towards something on the other side of Rhys. “ _That_ thing showed up and lead us straight to you. Don't ask me how it did that; Aurelia claims she had something to do with it.”

“I _told_ you already there is nothing you can't make happen if you just have enough money to spend on things,” Aurelia says.

Rhys turns his head to look at what it is that Maya seems so upset about.

A Loader Bot is standing in the tunnel, its red eye moving to focus on Rhys. “Hi,” it says, its tinny voice echoing. Its sight washes more relief through Rhys' system than hearing Maya's voice calling his name a couple of moments ago was able to do.

Jack.

Jack has really sent someone.

Jack sent a Loader Bot who came and searched for Rhys.

It led the Vault Hunters to Rhys' position; without his help, Rhys would still be stuck inside the rubble below.

Another sob tears loose from him and he leans to the side to throw his arms around the Loader Bot's square leg. “Thank you,” he whispers, pressing his face against the metal. “Thank you for getting me out of here, buddy...”

“You are welcome,” the Loader Bot says amicably.

Rhys is squeezing its leg even tighter, smiling, relieved, against the cool surface.


	39. Chapter 39

They make it out of the caves within a day's time from there. They don't talk much on the way, but Rhys learns that the others found the second part of the Key already, and that Lagortha dropped the final one, so that now, they are all settled.

“I got a sweet new shield from her!” Gaige announces. “She was soooo huge! You could build a little house inside of her shell!”

Rhys doesn't want to imagine how huge she was. He's only glad he wasn't the one to stumble into her.

He also learns that he was separated from the rest of the group for over three days, and that they searched a good chunk of the cave system for him, but couldn't find him until the Loader Bot showed up and led them straight to Rhys. Somehow, it felt more like three years to Rhys. But he clings to the fact that it is finally over.

It's night time when they arrive at the exit, and Rhys stands there for a long moment just breathing in fresh air, feeling the wind caress his skin, taking in the vastness of the night sky.

While the others set up a campfire and prepare their dinner, Rhys makes a trip to the nearby river to grant his clothes and himself a good soak. He feels like nothing will ever be able to wash the dust and dirt away from his body, but he'll try it at least; it won't make it worse.

When he’s done with the scrubbing, he finally calls Vaughn to tell his best friend that he is okay.

“You were off the ECHOnet for _four days_!” Vaughn laments. “I couldn't even see where you were anymore! I sent the Loader Bot I primed down to the cave system, but that couldn’t track you any further than the entrance, either! Timothy helped me set up a search party, we wanted to send it off tomorrow morning!”

Rhys has to smile at his bro's concern. “Thanks, Vaughn,” he says. “But I'm alright. I was so deep down in the caves my connection got killed. But we're all back in the outside world again.”

“Are you alright?” Vaughn asks. “You don't look well, bro.”

“It was rough...” Rhys admits. “But I'm alright now. You don't have to worry for me, bro.”

Vaughn eyes him suspiciously, and Rhys tries to pull off a reassuring smile. He _is_ alright now. And he doesn't want to worry Vaughn more than he is already worried.

“Okay,” Vaughn says, still not looking all too convinced about it. “So, do you have the Vault Key now?”

“Yeah, we got all three parts of it,” Rhys says. “Tomorrow, we will make it to the Vault, so I should be back to Helios in a couple of days.”

“Good,” Vaughn says. “Do me a favour and stay _away_ from the thing when they open it, okay? I don't want my best bro to get eaten by a Vault Monster.”

“I'm not insane, Vaughn,” Rhys makes clear. “I won't come near the Vault until the monster inside it is D-E-A-D.”

“Uh, no offence, bro, but your decisions _have_ seemed a little insane lately.”

“Well... that's... that's, fair,” Rhys admits. “But trust me, I do _not_ intend to battle a Vault Monster. Fighting with skags has already been enough for me.”

“See, this is exactly what I mean,” Vaughn comments.

“Vaughn, I promise I will be careful,” Rhys says. “And as soon as everything is over and done with, I will contact you to let you know I'm alright. Deal?”

“Well, I guess so,” Vaughn says, looking defeated. “Don't really have any other choice, do I?”

“I'll bring you a cool weapon from the loot,” Rhys promises, trying to cheer his bro up with a smile.

“Thank you,” Vaughn says, still looking concerned. “But deliver it to me in person, alright?”

“I will, bro. Big promise,” Rhys assures.

“Good,” Vaughn nods. “Oh, and make sure it's a cool one, right? Nothing white, I want at least something blue rarity!”

“Goodbye, Vaughn,” Rhys chuckles. “I'll call you up when I got your white gun.”

He hangs up with a smile and puts his ECHO device aside. Then he sinks down onto his back, allowing the water in the shallow river bed to gently wash around his head.

“Jack?” he asks carefully. “Jack, are you there?”

“For you always, Pumpkin,” Jack chirps back. “Looking at the stars, I see. Seems like you made it out of the caves, then.”

“The Loader Bot you sent was helpful in that,” Rhys remarks.

“Ah, so it made it there, huh?” Jack asks proudly. “Good little junkhead. I loaded your bio-signature into its system so it could track that. Works without that stupid ECHOnet connection. Almost like a bloodhound sniffing out your trail.”

“That, uh... is actually kinda creepy,” Rhys says. “But I guess it worked, so... thank you for that.”

Jack chuckles on the other end. “Told you I would get you outta there, Cupcake.”

“Yes, you did,” Rhys says with a smile.

“So,” Jack starts. “What's the situation now? You guys got the Vault Key? Or you gotta go back in and find it?”

“We have it,” Rhys says. “We can open up the Vault tomorrow. But – ”

“Yeeha!” Jack cheers. “ _That's_ what I like to hear! My man!”

“Jack,” Rhys tries again. “What will –”

“ _Oh_ , I'm so glad to _hear_ those words!” Jack continues to talk over him. “You have no _idea_ how done I am being stuck in this fucking asshole Vault!”

“Yeah, Jack, listen to me,” Rhys insists. “I know the Vault Hunters will open the Vault and defeat the giant Monster inside. But... won't they also kill _you_ once they're done doing that? You said they weren't exactly your fans.”

“Ah, don't worry about that, I got my cloaking device,” Jack claims. “Made sure it's fully charged, so it's not a big deal. Hunters open the Vault, Hunters are busy fighting the Monster, I slip out, you and I ride off into the sunset, done. See? Got it aaaaall planned out for us, Kiddo.”

“Alright,” Rhys mumbles. “And you're sure this is gonna work?”

“Of course it's gonna work,” Jack assures him. “Just make sure the Vault Hunters open the Vault and we're good to go, Pumpkin.”

“Alright, yeah, I will do that,” Rhys says. It all seems... so easy now. Too easy, almost. Except it's not, because something is still bothering him.

“Jack?” he says. “Can I ask a favour of you?”

“Sure, Cupcake. What's up?”

“The Vault Hunters. They came to get me. I know you don't care for them, but, well, I do. So once you're out of that Vault again... leave them alone.”

Jack is laughing at the other end. “Leave them _alone_?” he asks. “I never _did_ anything to them in the first place. They came here, to my planet, searching for Vaults. They're pissed at me for making that difficult for them by doing what I do on Pandora. They hate me for it. That's literally all there is between us. I don't mind the Vault Hunters, the Vault Hunters mind me.”

“Well, okay, then keep it that way, please,” Rhys requests.

“Sure, yeah, okay, whatever,” Jack says. “I promise I'll continue not to chase after them and kill 'em. You satisfied now, Princess?”

“Yeah, I guess,” Rhys mumbles.

“You still haven't told them who you really are, have you, Kiddo?” Jack asks. “Still haven't told them you're working for Hyperion.”

“No, I haven't,” Rhys snaps. “And you know why, Jack? Because I'm afraid they wouldn't open that Vault anymore if they knew, and then you would continue to be stuck inside of it. So spare me your preaching, it's because of _you_ I can't be honest to my friends.”

Jack is quiet for a moment before he says, “Right. You’re right. I’m sorry, Pumpkin,” in extremely soft tones. It’s the same tone he had when Rhys snapped at him for invading his privacy and treating him like a Claptrap unit. “I’m just worried about you, is all. Thank you for making sure they don’t jump ship on this.”

“Yeah, whatever,” Rhys grumbles. “Just make sure to stick to your promise, Jack.”

“I will,” Jack claims. “I always stick to my promises, good or bad.”

“How reassuring,” Rhys mutters.

That’s when Gaige’s voice echoes over to him, telling him that dinner is ready.

“I gotta go,” he says. “I’ll let you know when we get close enough to the Vault to open it.”

“Sure thing,” Jack sing-songs. “Have a nice dinner, Kitten!”

“Thanks,” Rhys mumbles and gets himself out of the water. Walking towards the silhouettes of the Vault Hunters laughing around their campfire almost feels like coming home to a place that he’s forfeited any right to belong to.


	40. Chapter 40

They continue their travel without a car from here. It will take them half a day to get to the Vault, and Rhys’ anxiousness grows with every step. He dreads opening the Vault so much, and at the same time, he knows it has to happen. But he fears for his Vault Hunter friends to get hurt, fears for something going wrong with Jack, fears that this entire endeavour will fail. By the time they reach the giant mountain that apparently houses the Vault they search for, Rhys’ insides are a pulsing, caustic knot.

“Holy shit,” Gaige marvels as they make their way down a gentle slope towards the mountain. “That thing is _huge_! Do you think the Vault Monster inside of it will be just as gigantic as that mountain?”

“It _is_ called the Giantess,” Maya remarks.

“That is so coooool!” Gaige cheers. “Man, I can’t _wait_ to see the loot that drops from her!”

Rhys trails along behind them, a gloomy expression contorting his features. Except for the Loader Bot, the others seem excited. Then again, the robot doesn’t show any kind of emotion whatsoever. He could be the happiest creature in the world for all Rhys knows.

When he’s certain the others can’t hear him if he whispers, Rhys sets off a call to Jack.

“We’re almost at the Vault now,” he murmurs lowly. “They should get ready to open in it in just a couple of minutes now.”

“Hey, Rhysie!” Jack greats. “I know where you are, I’m watching through your ECHO eye. Will have to compliment Aurelia on her backside next time that I see her. She always appreciates when someone notices her efforts.”

“You are _watching_ us?” Rhys hisses. “How long have you been doing that?!”

“Oh, I dunno, maybe for half an hour now?” Jack guesses.

“Are you telling me you watched through my ECHO eye without my knowledge?” Rhys bristles.

“Well, yeah, sometimes I did,” Jack says in his melodic, completely-unaware-of-any-wrongdoings kind of sing-song. “I mean, come on, I’m stuck inside of a Vault here, Cupcake. But no worries, I’m far too busy running a business from in here to have watched all the time when you’re doing anything. Though I _did_ see it when you peed behind that scrub and then that scythid came out and scared you.” He giggles at the memory of it. “Man, that was… that was really hilarious. _So_ sad I couldn’t see your face when that happened.”

Rhys glare-pouts, which, sadly, Jack isn’t able to see either. “I might just tell them to let you be stuck in there,” he grunts.

“Noooooo, no, no, no, no, I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” Jack chuckles. “I swear I didn’t watch you that often, Breadcrumb. Just wanted to check on you every now and again.”

“Sure you did,” Rhys grumbles. He secretly hopes that Jack will catch a bullet in the ass when the Vault Hunters start to fight with the Monster.

He almost runs into Zer0 when they stop in front of the mountain. It really is gigantic. It’s made of light grey stone, shimmering iridescently. A black circle is embedded into the ground in front of it. In its middle is room for a big cone, obviously meant for a Vault Key.

“Guess we’re here,” Rhys mumbles.

“Yep,” Gaige agrees. “Looks like it.”

“How dreadfully unspectacular,” Aurelia sighs. “Let us quickly open this thing, to guarantee for some action.”

Maya nods and takes a step backwards. “Let us assemble the Vault Key then,” she says. “Rhys, do me a favour and stay back as soon as we have it. Hide somewhere and don’t engage; if you draw its attention, we can’t guarantee for your safety.”

“Yeah, no worries about that,” Rhys says. “I don’t intend to battle a giant Vault Monster.”

Zer0, Aurelia, and Maya all unstrap a part of the Vault Key from their backs and carefully place it in the cone-shaped hole inside of the black circle. Maya is the last to place her piece. A crunching sound can be heard and, immediately, the Vault Key ignites in a bright, purple light.

“It’s happening~” Aurelia chirps. All of the Vault Hunters grab their weapons. Rhys is so stunned by the glowing Vault Key that he completely forgets to run like he promised, until the Loader Bot grabs him by the collar and flies off.

It drops Rhys behind a giant boulder on the slope that they walked down to the mountain earlier. Rhys immediately peeks over the top, anxious to miss anything below. He’s just in time to see an opening in the shape of an upturned V appearing inside of the mountain front and the Vault Hunters arranging in a half-circle around it. Then, an ear-shattering roar sounds through the air.

Rhys is holding his breath and clinging to the rock in front of him. He remembers the Vault Monster from Jack's video call, remembers how absolutely enormous it is. He can’t imagine how four human-sized creatures and a robot are supposed to prevail over such a gigantic beast. Even for Vault Hunters, this seems to be a sure losing game.

He waits, but nothing is happening. The Monster is not coming out of the Vault. And Jack is... is _Jack_ coming out of the Vault? He tries to set up a connection again. This time, Jack isn't answering his call.

“Loader Bot?” he asks, growing nervous. “Do you know if Jack made it out of the Vault already?”

“I cannot tell,” the Loader Bot informs him. “I am only calibrated to track you.”

“Can you go look?”

“Jack told me to keep you safe,” the robot protests. “I am not supposed to leave you alone.”

Rhys doesn't know whether to feel flattered or rather concerned by that statement. He casts another look at the Vault Hunters, who appear to realise the Monster won't move out of its Vault as well now. They seem to discuss something, then they carefully move towards the entrance.

Rhys is watching as they vanish into the giant opening, his heart hammering in his chest, its beat echoing painfully inside of his temples. He knows he would just be a hindrance to them, so as much as he wants to follow them and help, he stays where he is, pressed against the bolder. He can shoot skags, sure, and maybe some bandits, but a giant Vault Monster? The others would be too busy protecting him as to be able to fight the Monster properly, and that could ultimately mean their defeat.

Also, Rhys still hopes he'll be able to contact Jack from here.

His call still isn't going through. He's worried that the fight taking place _inside_ of the Vault will mean that Jack can't get past the fighting parties. Maybe he should go inside there after all... See if he can locate Jack...

A moonshot suddenly crashes from the sky and startles Rhys out of his thinking. No, it’s not a moonshot. It’s a big, armed Loader Bot, unfolding elegantly after its landing.

Rhys blinks at it in confusion, trying to grasp what is happening here. Is Jack sending his army now? Does he plan on attacking the Vault Hunters?

He almost cries out as, all of a sudden, a figure appears out of nowhere for a second, stumbling towards the Loader Bot. Its giant arms engulf it immediately, and then the bot takes off right away, before Rhys can realise what is going on.

He sits there for a solid minute afterwards before he is able to process anything.

“Was that Jack?” he whispers to the Loader Bot next to him. “Did the Loader Bot get him to safety?”

“It seems like it,” his Loader Bot replies.

“Where are they headed?”

“To the next Fast Travel station, I assume.”

Rhys nods and presses his lips together.

Fine then. So this is it, right? Jack is gone. He made it out of the Vault and is safe now. Rhys’ mission is officially over, and there’s nothing else that he has to do for Jack.

He gets out his ECHO device and group-calls the Vault Hunters.

“Guys?” he asks. “Guys, get out of there! Leave the Monster alive, shut the Vault, destroy the Vault Key! Hyperion knows the Vault is here and open!”

“Are you kidding me?!” Maya yells back. “We’re in the middle of something here, Rhys!”

“I know!” Rhys calls. “But guys, I have no idea what Hyperion plans to do with this Vault! If you keep the Monster alive, close it, and keep the Key, Hyperion won’t be able to use it!”

“I will _not_ give up on all this loot!” Aurelia protests. “If Jack wants to have this Vault, he will get it empty!”

“Guys, I’m not kidding about this!” Rhys hisses. “For all I know, a troop of robots could show up here any second and try to kill you! You need to close the Vault again as quickly as possible!”

“Oh, I knew it,” Maya snarls. “You’re Hyperion, aren’t you? They found out about this Vault thanks to you. You let us open it for them, it had nothing to do with any personal reasons.”

“No!” Rhys exclaims. “I mean no, it _was_ for personal reasons, and technically, Hyperion knew about this Vault before, but –”

“You’re really Hyperion?!” Gaige interrupts him. “ _Rhys_! What in Hell! I really liked you!”

“Listen, guys –”

“This is great,” Maya growls. “Just great! I knew someone who names themselves ‘Clemombert’ could not be trusted!”

“Oh, could we please discuss this later,” Aurelia complains. “I want a shiny sniper rifle from this thing.”

“Excuse me that I am mildly aggravated!” Gaige snaps.

“Oh, well, listen,” Aurelia says. “Rhys is a rather decent fellow, alright? I did a solid background check on him, and I deemed him worthy of taking his mission. Can we please go back to our battle at hand now?”

“Wait, you _knew_ he was Hyperion?!” Maya barks.

“Darling, I _told_ you I have a long list of contacts,” Aurelia says. “If I want to know anything, I find it out. Watch where you’re shooting, please, would you, sweetheart.”

“I can’t believe you two!” Gaige cries. “How can you all just lie to your friends like this?!”

“I’m sorry,” Rhys says honestly. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you the truth. I was afraid you wouldn’t give me a chance. But –”

“Damn right we wouldn’t have!” Gaige interrupts him once again.

Rhys closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. “I understand,” he says. “I fully understand you’re angry with me. But guys? Hyperion is onto us now. I promise you, I don’t know what they’re planning. But they might come and try to grab the Vault Key from you. Get it to safety, destroy it, I don’t care. Just make sure that Hyperion doesn’t get it.”

“That’s a fair warning,” Zer0 finally joins in the conversation. “Let us get out of the Vault | And discuss outside. In case we want to | We can open it again | And pick up the fight.”

“Do we really?” Aurelia sighs. “Fine. But then I want at least a part of the Vault Key. It’s shiny, I want it for my living room. Well, one of my living rooms, anyway.”

“How can you discuss keeping Vault Keys right now?!” Gaige howls. “You are absolutely unbelievable!”

“That really seems a bit inappropriate,” Rhys offers.

“Shut up!” Maya and Gaige bark at him in unison.

“Fine, we’re coming,” Maya hisses then. “But for chrissake, Rhys, I’ll end you for this when I get to you.”

Rhys only nods and lowers his gaze. “Fair enough,” he mumbles and ends their ECHO call. He only hopes that Jack didn’t witness any part of this conversation.


	41. Chapter 41

Rhys tells the Loader Bot to stay behind because he feels like the others might not enjoy its company very much anymore now.

They crouch in a half-round spot underneath an overhanging rock, far enough from the Vault entrance to get away if someone nears it, but also close enough yet to have an eye on it.

Aurelia seems very unconcerned by the other’s wrath, but Rhys is feeling pretty crestfallen.

“You lied to us,” Maya states coldly.

“Technically I just didn’t tell you the truth,” Rhys tries. “I mean, I never said I was _not_ Hyperion, so…”

“Don’t! try! to smartass me! Rhys!” she growls. “I want you to answer every question we have, so we can decide if we want to let you live!”

“You would have shot him already if you really meant to,” Aurelia claims while polishing her nails.

“Shut up!” Maya snaps at her. Then she turns her attention back to Rhys. “Why did you hire us?” she asks him.

“Because I knew I couldn’t open the Vault myself.”

“Why did you want to open it?”

Rhys hesitates for a moment, knowing that his next words will sound unbelievable. “Someone I… care about,” he says warily, “was… stuck inside of it and I… wanted to help them out.”

Maya glares at him, her brow furrowed. “Someone you know was _stuck inside of a Vault_?” she asks.

“Uh, yeah,” Rhys says. “A Siren teleported them into it.”

“A what now?!”

Rhys just blinks sheepishly.

“That’s the biggest pile of bullshit I ever heard,” Maya states. “I compliment you for your imagination, though.”

“He might tell the truth,” Zer0 suddenly pipes in. “I saw a figure running | When in decepti0n. I saw its crit spots | It looked like it was human | And ran from the Vault.”

“You saw. A figure?!” Maya snaps.

And Gaige adds, indignantly, “And you didn’t bother to tell us about it?!”

“There was no time yet,” Zer0 claims, unbothered.

Both Maya and Gaige groan in frustration.

“Alright, so,” Maya begins, massaging her temple with two of her fingertips, “a person you know got in a dispute with a Siren and she locked them inside of that Vault, if I get it right.”

“That, uh. About sums it up, yeah,” Rhys mumbles.

“And you used your Hyperion status to hire and equip us so we would open the Vault for you.”

Rhys nods.

“And you didn’t tell us _anything_ about that and rather stuck to a ridiculous lie because…?”

“Because I was afraid you would hate me for being a member of Hyperion,” Rhys repeats.

“Well, now we hate you for lying to us,” Gaige grumbles.

“Oh, don’t be so dramatic,” Aurelia says. “We _all_ lie for something far less pathetic than friendship all the time.” She looks over at Rhys and then smirks. “Or maybe it was even more than a friendship?”

Rhys blushes and glare-pouts furiously.

Gaige begins to giggle despite the grumpy look on her face just a second ago. “Aw, look at him!” she squeals, and, suddenly, she throws her arms around Rhys’ neck. “C’mere, Clemmy! I just can’t stay angry with you for long!”

Rhys is so surprised for a moment that he can’t even react to her affection. But then he smiles in relief and wraps his own arms around Gaige in a hug, squeezing her gently.

“Thank you,” he says.

“Can’t help it,” Gaige chirps.

“So, let me sum this up,” Maya interrupts them sharply. “Aurelia doesn’t care about any of this because she knew already and only wants her money anyway. Gaige was angry, but has suddenly forgiven you.”

“I can’t resist his puppy eyes!” Gaige calls.

“And Zer0,” Maya goes on, unimpressed, “is just shrugging it all off because he is working in mysterious ways.”

“I’m indifferent,” Zer0 says.

“That means we all collectively just decide that it’s okay that Rhys lied to us and kept vital information to himself because he didn’t trust us. But we now all trust _him_ in return. Is that correct?” Maya asks.

“He was saving a loved one, Maya,” Gaige says, leaning her face against Rhys’ shoulder.

Rhys’ stammered “He’s not a loved one…” goes completely ignored by everybody.

“How far would _you_ go to rescue Axton?”

“Nowhere,” Maya grumbles, very determined. “That idiot can get himself out of trouble.”

“It is surprising,” Zer0 comments, “That he didn’t get stuck yet | Inside of a Vault.”

“I know, right?” Gaige agrees. “It’s totally something that Axton would do. Like that hole he once fell in.” She starts giggling again. “Remember how he tried to grenade-jump out of it?”

“He almost tore off his leg,” Maya groans.

“But made it first jump,” Zer0 acknowledges.

Rhys gets the feeling that he is excused now.

He knows he didn’t tell them the whole truth yet, knows if they knew the person he saved was _Handsome Jack_ , they wouldn’t forgive him that easily. But he is not ready to do that yet. He needs some more time to prepare for it, some more time he can use to prove to the Vault Hunters that nothing bad has happened in it.

He _hopes_ nothing bad will happen in it. He will do whatever he can to keep them safe.

“So,” Aurelia interrupts his worries. “Now that we established we won’t kill Rhys, what will we do about the Vault Key?”

“We’re _not_ killing Rhys?” Maya asks with a glare at him.

“Three against one,” Gaige says.

“Do I at least get to punch him real hard?”

“IIIIIIIIII just remembered I _really_ need to go now,” Rhys states and clears his throat. “You, uh. You guys better discuss about the Vault Key when I’m no longer present.”

“Smart boy,” Maya grunts.

“Should we drop you off somewhere?” Gaige offers.

“Thank you, I’ll take the Loader Bot express,” Rhys says. “It can take me wherever I need to go.”

“You’re welcome,” Aurelia chirps with a meaningful look in his direction. Rhys is impressed by how well she plays along. How willingly she still covers for him so no one will learn that the Loader Bot got really sent by Jack.

“Yeah, thanks,” he stammers a bit helplessly. “Thanks to all of you, actually. For… you know… For basically everything.”

“Aaaaaaaaaaw!” Gaige exclaims and throws her arms around Rhys again. “I’ll miss you so much, Clemombert! Call us when you’re good, okay?”

“I will,” Rhys promises with a smile and squeezes her. “Won’t just leave my robot arm buddy hanging.”

“Robot arm buddies!” Gaige cheers and outstretches her mechanic fist. Rhys bumps his own against it, smiling, while Gaige makes a little explosion sound with her mouth.

“You were adequate,” Zer0… praises?... him as Gaige finally lets go and Rhys gets up. “Do not get killed on the way | Would be ironic.”

“Yeah… kinda…” Rhys mumbles. “Oh, that reminds me, I still have your gear. Do you –”

“You can keep the shield,” Zer0 says. “I don’t use it anyway | It’s pretty shitty.”

“Uh,” Rhys says.

Zer0 flashes an **;D** emoji on his visor.

“Yeah, you can keep my guns as well,” Maya growls from her spot on the ground. “Do me a favour and shoot yourself in the foot with it.”

“That might actually happen,” Rhys mumbles. He’s sorry that Maya is so angry with him. But he doesn’t know how to fix it now, and so he decides to just run a hand over his hair and remain in awkward, guilty silence.

“I never gave you anything, so bye-bye,” Aurelia sing-songs. Rhys would like to tell her how thankful he is for her support. But he shouldn’t do that in front of the others, so he just nods.

“I’ll call you guys later,” he promises. “Thank you again for… Well… yeah.”

“Bye Rhyyyys!” Gaige cheers and waves. Zer0 joins in her waving as well, while Aurelia just plays her fingers through the air without looking. Maya completely ignores him, but at least, she doesn’t kill him, so that’s something, he guesses.

With his gear, equipment, and forgiveness in stow, Rhys climbs out from underneath their shelter. It’s time to call Vaughn and then go back to his Loader Bot to finally find out where the guy they rescued actually went.


	42. Chapter 42

He finds Jack in Opportunity.

Well, actually, Timothy found him there, because Rhys’ calls to him still don’t make it through. But Timothy has high clearance up on Helios to credibly pretend that he is really Handsome Jack, and so he was able to access Jack’s tracking system, which, apparently, Jack hasn’t switched off.

It’s a long flight there, but Rhys still doesn’t have a Fast Travel card, so the Loader Bot carries him all the way on its shoulders. When they finally land in the Waterfront District, Rhys almost stumbles as he drops back on his legs.

He must look horrible he realises by the employees’ stares. There are workers here; engineers, Loader Bots, guards, and cleaners. But also people like Rhys, who work on numbers, charts, and figures, who sit at a desk all day and handle their computers. That life feels terrible far away from Rhys after the adventure that he experienced with the others.

“Hi,” the Loader Bot says and waves at the people around them. Some quickly move on, others continue to stare in disapproval. Rhys consciously runs a hand over his hair, but that doesn’t really do much about… anything.

Then he makes his way to Jack’s private chambers.

They tower in the highest building in all of Opportunity, the very top of Opportunity Square, and, normally, Rhys would already be laughed at by the elevator doors. But Jack hasn’t revoked his full clearance yet, and so Rhys just walks past the obviously surprised security guards into the elevator and spares them a Hyperion glare as the doors slide shut behind him. Then he sags a little, closes his eyes, and lays his head back.

The elevator doesn’t take long to reach the top. The doors slide open again with a little _bing_ , and Rhys drops his head and opens his eyes again.

The penthouse lying in front of him is ridiculous.

It’s vast and spacious, everything is steel, concrete and yellow, and there’s a goddamn waterfall in the middle of the living room. Rhys slowly steps out of the elevator, and carefully makes his way through the apartment.

Jack might not even be in here, actually. Maybe he's in the medical bay, swarmed by a buttload of doctors. But Rhys can't imagine Jack to go to a hospital if he can avoid it. If anything, he's let the doctors treat him here.

It's not hard to find the bedroom, since there is only one opening leading from the giant living room slash office slash open kitchen to another section. A bed large enough for three people (four, Rhys thinks, if another one lies at the foot of the bed) takes the center stage in it, and a lonely figure is sprawled beneath covers.

Rhys stops in the doorway and studies it.

Jack looks pretty well for someone who has spent the last couple of weeks in a Vault, he concludes. He appears to have showered and taken some Anshin, as he seems clean and free of any wounds. His hair is still a bit wet as well, already curling into that trademark wave again.

A bowl with remains of hot soup stands on the little shelf next to Jack's side of the bed. Rhys wonders when the last time Jack has eaten something real was, and how bad he must feel if he hasn't devoured all of it.

When Jack speaks, his voice sounds familiar and different at the same time.

“Hey, Pumpkin,” he says without opening his eyes. “Wondered when you would show up here.”

“I couldn't call you,” Rhys replies.

“Had to put all my energy into the cloaking device when I used it,” Jack explains. “And then it was drained. Left you a message on your ECHO device when I came here, though.”

His... oh. Rhys didn't even check his ECHO device for messages.

“Well, I found you anyway,” he says. And then, because he really doesn't know what else to say, he asks, “Are you... are you okay?”

Jack chuckles lowly and outstretches his hand. “C'mere, Kitten,” he asks, making a waving motion. “Sit with me, I'm too beaten to get up.”

Rhys nears the bed, taking very slow steps. He doesn't know why, but seeing Jack _here_ , in front of him, without any distance, feels weirdly unreal. He tentatively sits down on the edge of the bed by Jack's side.

Jack's hand falls onto Rhys' legs as he opens his eyes and looks at him. His lids seem to be heavy, but his different coloured eyes are focused and awake. A slight smile pulls up the corners of his lips.

“You look tired, Cupcake,” he says and reaches up to brush his knuckles over the underside of Rhys' chin. “Must have been a helluva couple of days for you, huh?”

Rhys... is. He is _so_ tired. He just wants a hot shower, and a really long nap, and then some, oh, some ramen or something. Hot and nice and something with not even a single piece of skag in it.

“Yeah, kinda,” he mutters, ignoring his rumbling belly.

“Come lie with me for a bit,” Jack offers. “Get some rest. And then we'll order us something premium, and watch stupid shit on television all day.”

“That... sounds... really great, actually,” Rhys admits.

Jack chuckles again softly and pats the free side of the bed, his eyes already falling shut again. Rhys peels his shoes off his feet before he climbs into the bed, sinking down into its wonderful softness next to Jack.

“Amazing how good a bed can be, huh?” Jack asks.

Rhys can feel Jack right beside him as he speaks, and he gives an affirmative grunt to form an answer. Beds are good. Beds are fabulous. He doesn't protest as Jack shoves his right arm underneath his back and pulls Rhys close against his side.

“I'm glad you're here with me now, Rhysie” he murmurs and presses a soft kiss onto the crown of Rhys' head. “Now sleep well. You deserve it, Kitten.”

Damn right he does. He snuggles up against Jack's side and grunts again, already sleepy.

“And Pumpkin?” Jack says.

“Huh?”

“Thank you. For getting me out of that goddamn Vault already.”

“You're welcome,” Rhys mumbles against Jack's shoulder.

Then he falls asleep, and it's the best sleep he's had in a very long time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was it, folks! :)  
> Thank you so much for reading!  
> Feedback is always appreciated! <3


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